fllMra^Hffl 


gn 






89 ^1 


^^H 


K5 ^M 


^^^^H; 


2 ^^M 


• 


i'' 

;■ 

\^ 

i 

i'- 
i' 

I 

1 
■ 
j; 


HENIW KEIA'IIl-E 1 


f 

1 




BooL 



B? h's 



(mm&ht W cohyx 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



REV. JOHN MYLES 



REV, JOHN MYLES 

AND THE 

FOUNDING OF 

THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH 

IN MASSACHUSETTS 

AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

Delivered at the Dedication of a Monument 

IN Barrington, Rhode Island 

(Formerly Swansea, Mass.) 

June 17, 1905 



BY 

HENRY MELVILLE KING 

pastor of the first baptist church in providence 



providence, R. I. 
PRESTON & ROUNDS CO. 

1905 



I y I 






LIBRARY of congress] 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 27 1^05 

_ Copyrifirm Entry 
CLASS 0^ XXc, No, 



'\Lfatf 



Copyright, 1905 

BY 
HENRY M. KING 



PREFACE. 

Rev. John Myles came to New England 
from Swansea, Wales, in 1663, being driven 
from his native land by religious persecution 
in the reign of Charles II. He settled in 
Rehoboth, Mass., and subsequently removed 
to that part of Sowams known as Wannamoi- 
sett, to which was given the name of Swan- 
sea, in remembrance of the Welsh town from 
which Mr. Myles came. In the old world he 
had been a successful preacher and leader of 
men, and in the new world such were his 
character and influence that he is worthy to 
be regarded as one of the founders of our 
free Republic, though his name does not al- 
ways appear in the Encyclopaedias. He 
founded the first Baptist church on Massachu- 
setts soil, and founded a town the most unique 
in some respects of any of the New England 
settlements. He died in 1683, and after the 
lapse of 222 years there was no stone to mark 
his grave. Indeed the place of his burial was 



VI PREFACE. 

not positively known, though he "was most 
probably buried in the old graveyard near 
where his meeting house and dwelling house 
stood at Tyler's Point" (Tustin) in the pres- 
ent town of Barrington, R. I. 

Through the efforts of Hon. Thomas W. 
Bicknell, President of the Barrington His- 
toric Antiquarian Society and of the Bristol 
County Historical Association, a rough boul- 
der was procured and placed in the old ceme- 
tery near the svipposed place of the grave, 
and dedicated to Mr. Myles' memory on June 
17, 1905. Appropriate services were held first 
in the Town Hall in Barrington, and then in 
the cemetery, both being presided over by Mr. 
Bicknell. The services in the Hall consisted 
of a brief address by the President, prayer by 
Rev. G. E. Morse, minister of the John Myles 
Baptist church in North Swansea, Mass., the 
Historical Address by Rev. Henry M. King, 
D. D., minister of the First Baptist church in 
Providence, a brief address by Rev. H. W. 
Wat j en, minister of the Baptist church in 
Warren, R. I., a poem by Rev. M. L. Willis- 
ton, minister of the Congregational church in 



. PREFACE. Vll 

Barrington, and appropriate musical selections 
by a chorus under the leadership of Mr. F. 
S. Martin of Warren. These included the 
singing of the "Swansea Song," written by 
Hezekiah Butterworth. (See appendix J.) 

The services at the Cemetery consisted of 
a Dedicatory Address by Rev. W. H. Eaton, 
D. D., Secretary of the Massachusetts Baptist 
Missionary Society (see appendix J), a poem 
written by Miss Imogene C. Eaton of East 
Providence and addresses by Mr. Hezekiah 
Butterworth of Boston and by ex-Governor 
John W. Davis of Pawtucket, R. I., both of 
them descendants of the first settlers. Gen. 
Nelson A. Miles, a lineal descendant of Rev. 
John Myles, was expected to be present, but 
was compelled to send a letter of regret. The 
day was beautiful, the attendance from Bar- 
rington, Providence and adjacent towns large, 
and the services of great interest throughout. 

H. M. K. 
First Baptist Parsonage, 
December, 1905. 



CONTENTS. 

Historical Address 1-51 

Appendix A. Covenant of the Church. 52 

Appendix B. Grant of New Swansea. . 56 

Appendix C. Reply of the Church 58 

Appendix D. Action of the Town 64 

Appendix E. Division of the Inhabi- 
tants 67 

Appendix F. Letter from Thomas Hol- 

lis 72 

Appendix G. Weymouth and Hanserd 

Knollys y*j 

Appendix H. New Churches and Early 

Pastors 81 

Appendix I. Was the Church a Baptist 

Church? 85 

Appendix J. Swansea Song and Dedi- 
catory Address 93 

Appendix K. Bibliography 99 

Index 105 



REV. JOHN MYLES 

AND THE 

FOUNDING OF THE FIRST BAPTIST 
CHURCH IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

By a remarkable reaction in public senti- 
ment the English people who had beheaded 
Charles I on the afternoon of January 30, 
1649, being unable to endure longer his op- 
pressive and tyrannical unsurpation of power, 
were ready almost with one consent, when 
Cromwell died, to re-establish the throne and 
welcome a king. For nearly ten years they 
had enjoyed under the Protectorate an un- 
usual measure of liberty and religious toler- 
ation. 

It is true that the government of the Great 
Commoner was never wholly acceptable to the 
people, and became, as it progressed, increas- 
ingly unpopular. The people became more 
and more dissatisfied, and hoped to find sta- 
bility and rest by a return to royalty and the 



2 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

reinstatement of the Stuart line, under which 
they were encouraged to beHeve they might 
preserve the hberties which they had enjoyed 
for a brief time. 

It has been truly said by a recent student of 
the period: ''Cromwell did not himself hold 
the highest conceptions on the subject (of re- 
ligious liberty), but he put in practice the 
views he did hold. By him the leading sects 
were all tolerated. The nation was ready for 
no such freedom, but the people were forced 
to concede each other's rights. The English 
government was as little representative as at 
any period in his history. Yet this short speci- 
men of limited toleration (for such it was) led 
many men to see its desirability. The nation 
went back heartily to the domination of over- 
bearing kings, but never quite forgot the days 
of Cromwellian freedom."* 

It is the old and oft repeated story of hu- 
man history, the people longing for "the leeks 
and the onions and the garlic" of a bondage 
from which they had escaped, and needing the 

♦Wallace St. John— "The Contest for liberty of Con- 
science in Eng-land," p. 82, 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 3 

painful discipline of forty years of wandering 
in the wilderness before they were ready to 
enter the land of promise. The leaders of 
the Reformation, Luther, Zwingli, Melanch- 
thon, shrank back from the full emancipation, 
of which at first they fondly dreamed, and 
though accomplishing much, allowed them- 
selves to be satisfied with half a victory. Our 
Puritan fathers, heroic men, fled into exile 
that they might enjoy personal freedom, at the 
same time putting straight jackets on some 
of their own number, and driving into a new 
exile those who came to help them on to a 
full and glorious liberty. The great founders 
of our Republic, boldly declaring their sublime 
faith that all men "are created equal, that 
they are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
tain unalienable rights, that among these are 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that 
to secure these rights governments are estab- 
lished among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed," a declara- 
tion of principles unsurpassed since the ut- 
terance of the immortal Sermon on the Mount, 
yet allowed to remain, like a festering sore in 



4 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

the body politic, a system of human slavery 
unnatural, utterly inconsistent with their dec- 
laration of principles, and more cruel than 
that which the ancient Hebrews either prac- 
ticed or endured, and whose abscission came 
near exhausting the wealth and the life-blood 
of the nation. So inconsistent is the life of 
men and of nations ; so slow is the progress 
of society and human government, its move- 
ments being not only checked and retarded, 
but often reversed and turned backward; so 
necessary is it that men should be educated 
by painful processes before they are ready to 
choose, and fit to enjoy, the full blessings of 
"liberty, equality and fraternity." 

This is the astonishing fact, that the Eng- 
lish people in the middle of the seventeenth 
century beheaded Charles I, and in ten years 
invited his son, Charles II, to return from the 
continent, where he was living in exile, and 
take the throne and the sceptre, which they 
had wrested from the father. 

To be sure, the dissenting bodies of Chris- 
tians sent to him before he left the continent, 
their representatives, hoping to secure his 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 5 

promised protection of their rights and privi- 
leges, when he should become king. The 
Presbyterians who had found Cromwell a lit- 
tle too tolerant to meet their wishes, hoped to 
bring about through the new king a recogni- 
tion of their Church as the National Church. 
This was their conception of religious liberty. 
The Baptists formulated their propositions, 
asking for themselves and for all men, as they 
had always done, full liberty of conscience, 
and sent them signed by ten representative 
men to the claimant of the throne. Their 
fundamental principle and urgent request 
found expression. in the following respectful 
and ringing words — 

"Forasmuch as it cannot be denied but that 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by his 
death and resurrection, has purchased the lib- 
erties of his own people, and is thereby be- 
come their sole Lord and King, to whom, and 
to whom only, they owe obedience in things 
spiritual; we do therefore humbly beseech 
your majesty, that you would engage your 
royal word never to erect, or suffer to be 
erected, any such tyrannical, popish and anti- 



6 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

Christian hierarchy (Episcopal, Presbyterian, 
or by what name soever it may be called) as 
shall assume a power or impose a yoke upon 
the consciences of others; but that every one 
of your majesty's subjects may hereafter be 
left at liberty to worship God in such a way, 
form, and manner, as shall appear to them to 
be agreeable to the mind and will of Christ, 
revealed in his Word, according to that pro- 
portion or measure of faith and knowledge 
which they have received." 

That was a characteristic utterance of Bap- 
tists at that early date, demanding not tolera- 
tion, but full religious liberty for all men. 
Other religious bodies made their appeals ac- 
cording to their conceptions of toleration. The 
king treated their approaches in a conciliatory 
and crafty manner, and on May 29, 1660, the 
thirtieth anniversary of his birth, Charles II 
was welcomed back to England with genuine 
public rejoicings. 
"He kept the word of promise to their ear, 

And broke it to their hope." 

The dissenting bodies were doomed to bit- 
ter disappointment. In 1661 the Savoy Con- 



REV. JOHN MYLES. / 

ference was called together, which was an at- 
tempt to formulate and prescribe a national 
creed. In 1662 the intolerable Act of Uni- 
formity was passed which compelled every 
clergyman of every name, on or before Aug. 
24th, St. Bartholomew's Day, to assent in toto 
to the Book of Common Prayer, under pen- 
alty of losing his benefice, and compelled 
every occupant of a benefice to receive a 
bishop's ordination. On June 14, 1662, Sir 
Henry Vane was beheaded on Tower Hill. He 
had been in New England long enough to be 
the liberal Governor of the Massachusetts 
Bay (1635 to 1637). He was the firm friend 
of Roger Williams, which is only another way 
of saying that he was the firm friend of lib- 
erty. In the same year the Corporation Act 
was passed, which required every office-holder 
in a municipal corporation to take an oath of 
non-resistance to the crown, and to receive 
the sacrament according to the rights of the 
Church of England, an Act aimed against 
dissenters to keep them out of office, munici- 
pal and parliamentary. In 1664 the Conven- 
ticle Act was passed, imposing severe fines 



8 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

upon all persons attending meetings for wor- 
ship, outside the established Church, five per- 
sons above those residing in the place consti- 
tuting an unlawful assembly. And in 1665 the 
Five Mile Act was passed, prohibiting min- 
isters who had been expelled, from settling 
within five miles of any town, and from teach- 
ing publicly or privately, till they had first sub- 
scribed to the Act of Uniformity, and taken 
the oath of non-resistance to the crown. 
Charles II was a Roman Catholic, and it is 
said "made several attempts to grant tolera- 
tion to his co-religionists, but he always gave 
way when the anti-popish passion seized the 
people." During this reign of terror it is said 
that more than eight thousand persons were 
sent to prison, many were reduced to poverty, 
and not a few lost their lives. 

Such was the condition of things in Eng- 
land in the sixties of the seventeenth century, 
a condition repressive of all freedom of con- 
duct, of speech, of faith, of conscience and al- 
most of thought. Of the government under 
Charles II, Macaulay says in caustic language, 
"It had just ability enough to deceive, and 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 9 

just religion enough to persecute." The Act 
of Uniformity of 1662 dispossessed of their 
parishes, it is said, two thousand ministers, 
who had been appointed by Cromwell. Pres- 
byterians, Independents and Baptists alike 
suffered ejectment. Then came a fresh de- 
portation of "sifted wheat" to the shores of 
New England.* 

Among those who were driven out by the 
cruel Act of Uniformity was Rev. John Myles 
(often now spelled Miles) the pastor of a 
Baptist church in Ilston, in Swansea, Wales. 
Of his early life we know comparatively little. 
He is reported to have been born at Newton, 
in Herefordshire, about 1621, and to have 
matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, 
March nth, 1636. "He sprang from a region 
whose soil had been enriched by the blood of 
martyrs in medieval and later times." When 
the young man reached his majority there 
seemed, however, to be few traces of primi- 

*"That 'shameless act of perfidy,' as a Scotch histo- 
rian styles the act of uniformity, deprived two thous- 
and Presbyterian usurpers of their living's in the Church 
of England; while, during- the reign of dissent in that 
fair island, full seven thousand of the established 
clergy were 'imprisoned, banished, and sent a starv- 
ing." Oliver "The Puritan Commonwealth," p. 367. 



10 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

tive, spiritual religion remaining in his coun- 
try. Another has said — "The destitution of 
gospel privileges in Wales about 1641 was 
truly appalling. Evangelical preachers had 
been hunted out by the Laudian inquisition, 
and the great majority of the ministers of the 
established Church were ignorant and cor- 
rupt." In that year a petition was sent to 
the King and Parliament by some distressed 
souls, stating that "after minutely searching, 
scarcely were there found as many conscien- 
tious, settled preachers in Wales as there were 
counties in it." Mr. Myles not only occupied 
a benefice under appointment of Cromwell, 
but his name appears as one of the "testers" 
(or triers) appointed under the "Act for the 
Better Propagation of the Gospel in Wales," 
signed February 22, 1649, which had for its 
purpose the sifting out of corrupt and worth- 
less ministers, and the furnishing of a better 
class for the Principality. This reveals the 
excellent character of the man, and the confi- 
dence which Cromwell had in his spirituality 
and good judgment. 

Somewhere about 1645 Mr. Myles entered 



REV. JOHN MYLES. II 

upon a new spiritual life, which was to be a 
life of successful service in the Christian min- 
istry on both sides of the Atlantic. He and a 
companion, Mr. Thomas Proud, went up to 
London, where they had opportunity to fol- 
low the new light which had come to them, 
and were baptised into the Baptist Church in 
Broad street, then in charge of William Con- 
sett and Edward Draper. The Londoners be- 
lieved that the coming of these Welsh breth- 
ren was a direct and immediate answer to 
prayer, for they had just spent a day in ear- 
nest supplication before God, driven by a 
sense of the spiritual need which they saw all 
about them, "that He would send laborers into 
the dark corners of the land." 

^Ir. Myles on returning to Wales gave him- 
self unreservedly to the work of preaching the 
gospel, and with such marked success that on 
Oct. I, 1649, ^ Baptist church was organized 
at Ilston, of which he became the pastor. Ac- 
cording to the records which have been pre- 
served, this was the first Baptist church in 
Wales. The following paragraph is taken 
from the records : 



12 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

"We cannot but admire at the unsearchable 
wisdom, power and love of God, in bringing 
about his own designs, far above and beyond 
the capacity and understanding of the wisest 
of men. Thus, to the glory of his own great 
name, hath He dealt with us ; for when there 
had been no company or society of people, 
holding forth and professing the doctrine, 
worship, order and discipline of the gospel, 
according to the primitive institution, that 
ever we heard of in all Wales, since the apos- 
tacy, it pleased the Lord to choose this dark 
corner to place his name in, and honor us, un- 
deserving creatures, with the happiness of be- 
ing the first in all these parts, among whom 
was practiced the glorious ordinance of bap- 
tism, and here to gather the first church of 
baptised believers." 

If it shall be found that Mr. Myles was in- 
strumental in founding the first Baptist church 
in the Swansea of the new world, a double 
honor rests upon the head of this ancient 
preacher of truth and righteousness. Eight 
months before the church at Ilston was organ- 
ized Charles I lost his head. It was in the 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 13 

atmosphere of a new and welcome toleration 
that religious activities were greatly multi- 
plied, the fear of civil and ecclesiastical pen- 
alties was removed, and large spiritual results 
were secured. At the end of the second year 
the little church in Ilston numbered fifty-five 
members. Forty were added in 165 1, and 
forty-seven in 1652. In eleven years two hun- 
dred and sixty-three persons had been added 
to the church-roll, all of whom are named in 
the records of the church, making it a large 
church for that period. Moreover several 
other churches had sprung into existence in 
that section. In all this activity and progress 
Mr. Myles was an active agent, and an 
acknowledged leader. In 165 1 he was chosen 
to represent the Welsh Baptists at the minis- 
ters' meeting in London. But the accession of 
Charles II to the throne brought disaster to 
this brief prosperity, sent fear and consterna- 
tion throughout the realm, made the land un- 
endurable for lovers of soul-liberty, and sepa- 
ated in thousands of instances pastors and 
people. Not a few of these pastors sought 
refuge and a larger freedom in this new 
world. 



14 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

Mr. Myles was one of a group of intelli- 
gent and sturdy Welsh Baptists who migrated 
to America, and were greatly useful in laying 
the foundations of their denomination in this 
country, being characterized by a profound 
leverence for the Word of God and a clear 
apprehension of its truths, by a love for edu- 
cation, and an intense passion for liberty and 
the rights of conscience. Rhode Island, Mas- 
sachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vir- 
ginia and other sections were all under im- 
mense obligation to this Welsh influence. 
Roger Williams (if he was a Welshman),* 
John Myles, Samuel Jones, Isaac Eaton, 
Thomas Griffith, Evan Morgan, Abel Mor- 
gan, Morgan Edwards, Morgan John Rhys, 
David Thomas, David Jones, John Williams 
and others, all of them worthy compatriots of 



*Mr. Henry P. Waters of Salem, Mass., a dis- 
tinguished g-enealog-ist, published in 1889 the results 
of his careful research as to the birthplace of Roger 
Williams, in which he disputed the traditional and 
universally accepted belief that he was born in the 
town of Gwinear in Wales, and maintained that he 
was a native of London. So strong- was the argument 
which he presented that many persons have regarded 
it as conclusive. There are some historians, however, 
who still hold to the traditional belief, and the Welsh 
Baptists still claim Rog-er Williams as theirs. It is 
doubtful if there will ever be absolute unanimity of 
opinion. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 1 5 

Vavasor Powell of the seventeenth century, 
and Christmas Evans of the eighteenth, both 
of whom fulfilled a powerful ministry in their 
native land, exerted an incalculable influence 
upon American Baptists, and it may be said, 
upon the religious, educational and political 
life of this Republic. Brown University owes 
its existence to the initiative of these Welsh 
Baptists."^ 

It is a matter of history that some portion 
of Mr. Myles' church at Ilston emigrated with 
him to this country, and settled in Rehoboth. 
How large a portion, it is impossible to ascer- 
tain, certainly not the whole church, as is 
sometimes represented, and probably a very 
small portion of it. For as I have been re- 
cently informed by a clergyman from Wales, 

*"The preponderance of the Welsh element in the 
early history of the Philadelphia Association, and 
especially of our own church, is worthy of note. Of 
the first six joint pastors of Pennepek and Philadel- 
phia, three— Samuel Jones and both the Morgans- 
were Welshmen, to whom are to be added their ma- 
mediate successors, Jenkin Jones and Morgan Ed- 
wards. Their force of character counted for far niore 
than their mere numbers. To this fact is due the 
sturdy Calvinistic faith, which was characteristic not 
only of our own, but of nearly all the churches of 
the Philadelphia Association. Even as late as Feb- 
ruary 14, 1831, separate services in the Welsh language 
were held in our church." "Historical address at the 
Bicentennial of the First Baptist Church m Philadel- 
phia" by William W. Keen, p. 54. 



l6 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

well acquainted with the history of the Welsh 
Baptists, a church still exists in old Swansea, 
v/hich dates its origin back to 1649, ^^^ claims 
to have maintained an unbroken continuity of 
life since that time. 

It was in 1663 that Mr. Myles and his little 
company of devoted followers came to this 
country, forty-three years after the Mayflower 
crossed the Atlantic, and thirty-two years af- 
ter the arrival of Roger Williams. Whether 
this company was large or small, the pastor 
brought the church records with him, written 
of course in the Welsh tongue. This fact has 
given rise undoubtedly to the prevalent belief 
that the church was transplanted bodily. Very 
fortunately those records, going back to 1649, 
have been preserved, having been translated 
by some unknown hand, and are still in the 
possession of the American Swansea Baptist 
church, and in good condition. It is interest- 
ing to know that the first Baptist church in 
Pennsylvania, called the Pennepek or Lower 
Dublin church, kept its records in the Welsh 
language for many years, and of course con- 
ducted its worship in that tongtie, and that 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 1 7 

the first Baptist church in Delaware was a 
Welsh church, and came bodily from Wales. 

It was in the town of Rehoboth, within the 
limits of Plymouth Colony, that Mr. Myles 
decided to make a home for himself and his 
company, guided undoubtedly by his knowl- 
edge that the spirit of this Colony was more 
tolerant and hospitable than that of the Mas- 
sachusetts Bay.* 

The reputation of the Puritans for religious 
intolerance and cruel persecution, which had 
been manifested again and again in formal 
legislation and open acts of violence, was well 
known on the other side of the Atlantic. John 
and Samuel Brown had been compelled to re- 
turn to England because they were guilty of 
the crime of non-conformity, being unwilling 

*Edgar D. Perry in an address at the ''Two Hun- 
dred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of 
Kehoboth," says Myles first undertook a settlement 
at Hingham. Goodwin in "Pilgrim Republic" speaks 
of the attempt being made at Dorchester , 

At that time Rehoboth was claimed by the Plymouth 
Colony. Subsequently it passed under the jurisdiction 
of the Massachusetts Bay with all the Plymouth ter- 
ritory The dividing line between Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island was long a matter of dispute. Says Ed- 
ward Field in "State of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations at the End of the Century, Vol I. 190. 
"The Plymouth Council, by letters patent ot ib^, 
granted to Bradford and his associates territory as 
far as Narragansett River, but this grant conveyed 



1 8 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

to renounce the book of Common Prayer, and 
offer their worship to God in the prescribed 
Puritan method. Roger WilHams had been 
banished, and his presence in England seven 
years afterwards, as a distinguished exile, 
driven out into the wilderness by Puritan au- 
thority, must have produced a wide and pro- 
found impression among the Baptists of the 
mother country. Obadiah Holmes, who with 
his two Baptist companions from Newport, 
Dr. John Clarke and John Crandall, had been 
arrested at Lynn for holding religious ser- 
vice in the home of an aged brother, to whom 



only right of estate, and not of jurisdiction. The first 
royal grant of the territory was in the Rhode Island 
charter of 1663, when the colony was given land ex- 
tending 'three Eng-lish miles to the east and north- 
east of the most eastern and northeastern parts of 
Narrag-ansett Bay.' In 1691 Plymouth was absorbed 
in the Massachusetts charter, and henceforth the dis- 
pute was held with the latter government." 

In 1733 Rhode Island petitioned to the King for a 
settlement, claiming territory according to the three 
mile clause In her charter. Massachusetts put in a 
counter claim for all territory as far as Narragansett 
Bay, based on the Plymouth grant. The Privy Coun- 
cil finally referred the matter to a Board of Commis- 
sioners, chosen from New York, New Jersey and Nova 
Scotia. They met in Providence June 30, 1741, and de- 
cided mainly in favor of the Rhode Island claim, giv- 
ing to that colony Barrington, Warren and Bristol, 
and also Tiverton and Little Compton. Massachusetts 
appealed from the decision. In May, 1746, the Coun- 
cil ordered that the award of the Commissioners be 
confirmed. Massachusetts still objected, and refused 
to have anything to do with surveying the boundary 
line. Rhode Island did it unaided, leaving disputes 
w^hich continued for a century. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. ^9 

they were paying a visit of Christian sym- 
pathy, had been whipped unmercifully on Bos- 
ton Common, Clarke and Crandall being im- 
prisoned and fined, and the treatment of these 
worthies by the Puritan authorities had called 
forth a severe remonstrance from Richard 
Saltonstall, who had been previously a Puri- 
tan magistrate, and was then on a visit to 

England. 

"It doth not a little grieve my spirit to hear 
what sad things are reported daily of your 
tyranny and persecutions in New England as 
that you fine, whip and imprison men for their 
consciences." 

These things were well known. Surely to 
leave old England, even under the reign of 
Charles II for that section of New England 
would have been to jump out of the frying 
pan into the fire. 

But even within the limits of the Plymouth 
Colony, notwithstanding the reputation the 
Pilgrims had of possessing a better spirit, 
which indeed they justly deserved, Mr. Myles 
did not find the free air and the bright sun- 
shine of an unrestricted liberty, which he may 



20 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

have expected, nor was his bed always a bed 
of fragrant roses. He was compelled even 
here, at first, to feel the sharp thorn of perse- 
cution. Fourteen years before his arrival, in 
1649, the year in which Charles I was be- 
headed, and also the year in which Mr. Myles 
founded the first Baptist church in Wales, 
there had been a division in the church of the 
standing order in Rehoboth, of which 
Rev. Samuel Newman was pastor. Obadiah 
Holmes (to whom reference has already been 
made as being whipped by the authorities in 
Boston, but who in his exalted martyr-spirit 
rose heroically above the pain of the bloody 
lashes, and declared to the executioner, "You 
have struck me as with roses") with several 
other members of the church took exception 
to the doctrine and the domineering methods 
of the pastor, withdrew from the meetings of 
the church and organized meetings of their 
own. Shortly after they were immersed by 
Dr. John Clarke and Mark Lucar of New- 
port.* Some writers speak of this step at 

*Dr. John Clarke was one of the founders of Aquid- 
neck (Newport) in 1638. He was a learned physician 
as well as pastor of the first church established 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 21 

Rehoboth as a new church organization, 
which would place the date of the origin of 
the first Baptist church in Massachusetts thir- 
teen or fourteen years before the coming of 
Mr. Myles. But though the form of church 
organization in those days was very simple, it 
is doubtful if these Baptists did more than 
hold meetings by themselves for mutual com- 
fort and edification. They were of course 
excommunicated from Mr. Newman's church, 
and Mr. Holmes and two of his associates 
were cited to appear before the Plymouth 
Court, four petitions or papers of accusation 
having been lodged against them, one from 
the neighboring church in Taunton, one from 
all the ministers in Plymouth Colony except 
two, one from thirty-five citizens of Rehoboth, 
members of Mr. Newman's church, and a 
fourth from what Benedict calls *'the med- 
dling Court at Boston, under their Secretary's 
hand, urging the Plymouth rulers speedily to 
suppress this growing schism." 

there, which was undoubtedly a Congreg-ational 
church. After a few years he changed his religious 
views, and assisted in organizing- a Baptist church, 
becoming its first pastor. Mark Lucar had recently 
come from London, where he had been a member of 
a Baptist church. 



22 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

The Puritan rulers undoubtedly instigated 
the whole proceeding, as they frequently 
manifested a lively sense of responsibility for 
the consciences and conduct of their neigh- 
bors. 

They had interfered with the rights of the 
Salem church in accepting Roger Williams 
as their pastor and desiring to retain him, and 
gave them no peace until he was driven out. 
In 1642 Governor Bellingham wrote to the 
Plymouth Governor, urging the latter to "con- 
sider and advise with us how we may avoid 
those who are secretly sowing the seed of 
familism and anabaptism." In 1646 the Con- 
federate Commissioners urged upon each 
General Court that "3. due watch be kept and 
continued at the door of God's house that 
anabaptism, familism and all errors of like 
nature may be seasonably and duly sup- 
pressed." Later the Puritan authorities had 
even presumed to reprimand the men of 
Providence for harboring the Quakers within 
their borders, and protested against the exer- 
cise of such hospitality. So now the Massa- 
chusetts Court addressed the Court at Ply- 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 2$ 

mouth in such words as these — "We have 
heard heretofore of diverse Anabaptists arisen 
up in your jurisdiction and connived at; but 
being but few we well hoped that it might 
have pleased God, by the endeavors of your- 
selves and the faithful elders with you, to 
have reduced such erring men again into the 
right way. But now to our great grief we 
are credibly informed that your patient bear- 
ing with such men hath produced another ef- 
fect, namely, the multiplying and increasing 
of the same errors, and we fear may be of 
other errors -also, if timely care be not taken 
to suppress the same. Particularly we under- 
stand that within this few weeks there have 
been at Seekonk thirteen or fourteen rebap- 
tized (a swift progress in one town), yet we 
hear not if any effectual restriction is intend- 
ed thereabouts." 

The Plymouth magistrates, however, did 
nothing but charge the accused to abstain 
from practices offensive to others, and bound 
them over, the one for the other, in the sum 
of ten pounds, for their future appearance at 
the court. At the October Court of that 



24 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

year (1650) the Grand Jury found a bill 
against nine persons, five men and four 
women, viz. : John Hazel*, Edward Smith and 
wife, Obadiah Holmes, Joseph Tory and wife, 
the wife of James Mann, and William Buell 
and wife. The crime with which they were 
charged was the continuing to hold meetings 
on the Lord's day from house to house in de- 
fiance of the order of the Court. There is, 
however, no record of any sentence being exe- 
cuted upon them. The bark of the Plymouth 
magistrates seems generally to have so far ex- 
hausted their strength and satisfied their de- 
sire that they had little strength or disposition 
to do much biting. They barked loudly when 
commanded by their Puritan neighbors, but 
their bite was of a milder type than the Bay 
approved. 

Soon after this public arraignment of this 
little Baptist group, Obadiah Holmes and 
some of his companions fled to Newport for 



*John Hazel traveled all the way to Boston throug-h 
the wilderness the next year, though upward of sixty 
years of age, to visit Holmes in prison, and for ex- 
pressing sympathy with him at the time of his whip- 
ping, was himself fined and imprisoned, and died from 
the effects of his imprisonment. He has been called 
"the first martyr to Baptist principles in America." 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 2^ 

residence to escape further annoyance, and 
enjoy the blessings of unrestricted Hberty. It 
was only nine months after that Mr. Holmes 
made his visit of Christian sympathy to a 
Baptist brother in Lynn, which terminated so 
painfully, the Puritan magistrates making full 
amends for the leniency of the Plymouth rul- 
ers by the severity of the punishment which 
they inflicted upon the criminal now that he 
was in their power. 

A few, however, of these early Baptist dis- 
senters appear to have remained in Rehoboth, 
quietly holding their beliefs, and waiting for 
the favorable opportunity to avow them open- 
ly. They were compelled to wait thirteen 
years. The opportunity came in 1663, at the 
coming of John Myles with his Welsh Bap- 
tists. 

The meeting for church organization and 
the declaration of fellowship was held in the 
house of John Butterworth. Seven persons, 
whose names are given in the records, then 
and there entered into solemn covenant to 
walk together in the truth and ordinances of 
the gospel of Jesus Christ, as they understood 



26 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

them, amenable to no human authority outside 
of themselves, ecclesiastical or civil, recog- 
nizing only the Lordship of Him, who is Head 
over all things to his Church. (See Appen- 
dix A.) The names of the constituent mem- 
bers are as follows : John Myles, James 
Brown, Nicholas Tanner, Joseph Carpenter, 
John Butterworth, Eldad Kingsley and Ben- 
jamin Alby. All these men were men of ster- 
ling character and clear convictions, and a 
worthy posterity honors and reveres their 
memory. James Brown came of especially 
good stock, as is well known. His father, 
John Brown, had been for many years a citi- 
zen of Rehoboth, and was one of the magis- 
trates. He was far advanced in his views of 
religious liberty long before the organization 
of the church. In 1655 it is reported that he 
expressed before the Court his conscientious 
scruples against taxing all the inhabitants for 
the support of religion, and generously offered 
himself to pay the taxes of all his townsmen, 
who refused for conscience sake. It will be 
noticed that the names of the sisters are not 
given with the names of the brethren; yet 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 2^ 

there were undoubtedly wives and mothers 
who formed an active and influential part of 
that church organization. Whoever heard of 
a good thing starting in this world, in which 
consecrated women did not have a hand? The 
world has long given to woman ample credit 
for the introduction of evil ; it is time she had 
her proper recognition in all movements for 
the moral and religious progress of the world, 
and its restoration to its lost fellowship with 
God. Her name may be omitted in the earth- 
ly records, but it will stand high in the records 
of Heaven.* 

So far as appears from any accessible 
sources of information, only one of these 



*It may have been customary to omit the nam.es of 
fenxale members in such fonnal action as entering into 
church covenant. AVhen in 1682, in Kittery, Me., a 
few Baptists under the leadership of William Screven, 
organized what was the first Baptist church in the 
District of Maine (in a few months it was transferred 
by reason of persecution to Charleston, S. C) the cov- 
enant was signed by the male members only. It Is 
known that several women had been recently bap- 
tized there, including the wife and mother-in-law of 
Mr. Screven, yet their names do not appear, attached 
to the covenant. After the record of the covenant and 
the signatures of ten brethren, the following attesta- 
tion is recorded: "This is a true copy compared with 
the original and owned by all our brethren and seven 
sisters, as attest 

VS^'m. Screven in 
behalf of the rest." 
See "Hist, of Baptists in Maine," pp. 20-23. by Rev. 
H. S. Burrage. also "Hist, of First Baptist Church in 
Boston," pp. 179-183. by Rev. N. E. V^'^ood. 



28 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

seven brethren, Nicholas Tanner, accom- 
panied Mr. Myles in his migration from 
Wales. As we do not know how many com- 
panions he had on his journey to this new 
world, so we do not know what became of 
them after their arrival. Backus says: 
"Nicholas Tanner, Obadiah Bowen, John 
Thomas and others also came over to this 
country (that is, with Mr. Myles) and one 
of Bowen's posterity is now Chancellor of 
the University at Providence." The first 
Chancellor of Brown University was Stephen 
Hopkins, LL. D. (1764-1785), and the second 
Chancellor was Jabez Bowen, LL. D. (1785- 
1815.) It is possible that some of the Welsh 
immigrants were detained for good reasons 
from that first meeting for organization, who 
subsequently came into the fellowship. It 
seems as if the little church organized itself 
about the strong personality of the pastor, and 
the imported church records. , 

This church was the fifth Baptist church in 
America. (See Appendix I.) The church in 
Providence, founded by Roger Williams, had 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 2g 

had an existence for twenty-five years.* The 
traditional date of the origin of the first church 
in Newport, founded by Dr. John Clarke upon 
the remains of a Congregational Church, is 
1644. About the year 1652 there was a divi- 
sion in the Providence Church, which led to 
the formation of a second church under the 
leadership of Thomas Olney. This church 
ceased to exist in 1718, after the pastorates of 
Mr. Olney and his son, Thomas, Jr. In the 
year 1656 there was a division in the church 
in Newport, and a Six Pnjiciple Baptist 
church was formed, which still exists (now 
called the Second Baptist church), and is in 
full fellowship with regular Baptist churches. 

At the first, the little church in Rehoboth 
appears to have enjoyed a measure of peace, 
and to have been permitted without violent 
opposition to worship God "under its own 
vine and fig tree," though not without many 
misgivings, heart-burnings and generous at- 
tempts to reclaim its members from the er- 



*For an attempt to found a Baptist church in Wey- 
mouth in 1639 and an account of its supposed author, 
Hanserd Knollys, see Appendix G. 



30 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

ror of their ways, on the part of the Standing 
Order. Dr. Mather, speaking of them, says: 
''There being many good men among those, 
I do not know that they have been persecuted 
with any harder means than those of kind 
conferences to reclaim them." Such generous 
interest seems to have been unappreciated and 
unsuccessful. Rev. Samuel Newman, the es- 
tablished pastor of the town, died the year of 
Mr. Myles' arrival. Whether the loss of his 
conscientious and active guardianship over 
the religious faiths of the people had any- 
thing to do with the temporary cessation of 
hostility against the new movement, we may 
not say. The cessation, however, was only 
temporary. Four years afterwards we find 
this record: 

"At the Court holden at Plymouth the 2d 
of July, 1667, before Thomas Prince, Gov- 
ernor (seven assistants are also mentioned, 
including John Alden and William Bradford) 
***** Mr. Myles and Mr. Brown, 
for their breach of order, in setting up of a 
public meeting without the knowledge and ap- 
probation of the Court to the disturbance of 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 31 

the peace of the place, are fined each of them 
five pounds, and Mr. Tanner the sum of one 
pound, and we judge that their continuance 
at Rehoboth, being very prejudicial to the 
peace of that church and that town, may not 
be allowed, and do therefore order all per- 
sons concerned therein wholly to desist from 
the said meeting in that place or township, 
within this month. Yet in case they shall re- 
move their meeting into some other place, 
where they may not prejudice any other 
church, and shall give us any reasonable satis- 
faction respecting their principles, we know 
not but they may be permitted by this govern- 
ment so to do."'^ Which being interpreted is 
— Stop your meetings for worship or get out, 
or rather, if you conclude to move to some 
other place, such as we may approve, and shall 
satisfy us as to your views and intentions, we 
may permit you to go. This seems to be a 
rather peculiar form of banishment. What 



*Goodwin makes the astonishing asertion: "There 
was in this no persecution because of religious belief, 
for the penalty was only that which would have been 
laid on the most orthodox of Congregutionalists who 
had in like manner established a new and poor church 
in an existing- parish." "The Pilgrim Republic," p 
523. 



32 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

was the occasion of this new outbreak we do 
not know. BayHes strangely suggests that 
"neither the designs nor characters of Myles 
and his church were understood at this time." 
But Mr. Myles had lived among them for 
four years, and held meetings, and preached, 
and gathered members to his flock. In May, 
1666, he was "received an inhabitant among 
them," that is, into full citizenship, as Mr. 
Tanner, his Welsh member, had been in April 
of that year. Moreover on April 13 of that 
year, he was voted by the town "to be a lec- 
turer, viz., to preach once a fortnight on the 
week day, once on the Sabbath day," to assist 
the pastor of the established church. Rev. 
Zachariah Symmes, who was in feeble health. 
Again on August 13, it was voted "that Mr. 
Myles shall still continue a lecturer on the 
week day, and further on the Sabbath." This 
was of course a temporary arrangement, un- 
til some one of their own communion could 
be found, yet was an expression of great lib- 
erality. Moreover, Baptists had lived among 
them for eighteen years, and had not been al- 
together unknown or ignored by the Honorable 
Court. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 33 

But whatever may have been the occasion 
of this fresh exhibition of hostiHty and perse- 
cution, it proved to be the last one. Indeed 
it may be said that again the bark of the Ply- 
mouth Court was worse than its bite, for in 
less than four months from this decision of 
the authorities (Oct. 30, 1667) ^^ amicable 
arrangement was entered into, whereby a por- 
tion of territory lying adjacent to Rehoboth, 
called Wannamoisett, was set apart for the 
occupation of the Baptists, and such persons 
as might wish to join them; for such had been 
the conduct and spirit of the Baptists that they 
had won the confidence and friendship of not 
a few of their neighbors and fellow citizens. 
This new town was named Swansea, after the 
Welsh town from which Mr. Myles had come. 
(See Appendix B.) This was the habit of 
many of the New England settlers, to give to 
the new homes the names of their places of 
residence in the "Old Home." This territory 
has since been divided into the towns of Swan- 
sea, Somerset, Warren and Barrington, the 
last two being now included in Rhode Island. 
This settlement was supposed by the Ply- 



34 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

mouth magistrates evidently to be sufficiently 
removed from Rehoboth not to be "prejudi- 
cial to the peace of that church and town," 
and was undoubtedly acceptable to the Bap- 
tists, for it required no great journey, and 
they would still be near the Baptist settle- 
ments in Providence and Newport. It seems 
that the name "Rehoboth," which means "The 
Lord hath made room for his beloved," was 
not quite applicable to the town which bore it. 
It should have signified "The Lord hath made 
room for some of his beloved." 

If the description of the town given by Rev. 
Samuel Peters, LL. D., in his "Life of Rev. 
Hugh Peters," in which he strangely con- 
founds Rev. Samuel Newman, who prepared 
a Concordance to the Bible, with the famous 
Alexander Cruden, the author of "Cruden's 
Concordance," was accurate, the town could 
hardly be regarded as an attractive place of 
residence at that time. This distinguished 
divine says: "It also was a frontier against 
the Pequod Indians, at the head of a creek 
emptying into Narragansett bay, where were 
plenty of fish and oysters, on which the set- 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 35 

tiers might live and protect Boston, if the In- 
dians did not scalp them. This pious clergy- 
man (Mr. Newman) with his pious compan- 
ions, not knowing their danger, went and 
formed the settlement of Rehoboth; the scite 
being pleasant, the air salubrious, and the 
prospect horrible." 

In the new town of Swansea set apart for 
this Baptist colony (an example which was 
followed in the early history of Western Mas- 
sachusetts, only there the boundary lines were 
very irregularly drawn, so as to include the 
existing homesteads of all Baptist families)* 
the little church found its permanent home, 
and through the vicissitudes of two hundred 
and forty-two years has, by the protecting 
grace of God, continued to this day. They 
built their first meeting-house about three 
miles northeast of Warren, and a second one 
in 1679 near Kelley's Bridge, and also a par- 



*The town of Cheshire in Massachusetts was origin- 
ally settled by Baptists from Swansea, Warwick, New- 
port and Providence, R. I., and was at first called New 
Providence. It was taken in part from the town of 
Adams and in part from the town of Lanesboro, and 
was set apart for Baptist occupation, the boundary 
line being- very irregular. (See "Historical Sketch of 
Baptist Beginnings in Berkshire." by Rev. W. H. 
Eaton, D. D. 



36 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

sonage for their minister. Both meeting 
house and parsonage were erected by vote of 
the town. 

Among the men intimately associated with 
Mr. Myles in the founding of the town was 
Captain Thomas Willett. They two are called 
"the fathers of the town."* Captain Willett's 
wife was a sister of James Brown, who was 
one of the constituent members of the church, 
but Mr. Willett was not a Baptist, and he rep- 
resented a considerable party who were not 
members of the church, and yet were promi- 
nent in the management of town affairs. In 
the records of the Court of New Plymouth for 
1667, we find this action taken — "The Court 
hath appointed Capt. Thomas Willett, Mr. 
Paine, Sen., Mr. Brown, Mr. John Allen and 
John Butterworth, to have the trust of admit- 



*Captain Willett was a man of strong character, and 
an acknowledg-ed leader wherever he was. He was 
one of the last of the Leyden company who came to 
Plymouth. In 1647 he became the successor of Captain 
Miles Standish in the command of the militia of Ply- 
mouth, and for a long period of years was elected one 
of the Governor's assistants. At a later period of his 
life he removed to New York, and became the first 
English Mayor after its cession from the Dutch. Re- 
turning to that part of Swansea, which is now Bar- 
rington, he died Aug. 4, 1674, before the breaking out 
of King Philip's war. His daughter, Sarah, married 
Rev. John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 37 

tance of town inhabitants in said town, and 
to have the disposal of the land therein, and 
ordering the other affairs of said town. The 
Court do allow and approve that the township 
granted unto Capt. Thomas Willett, and 
others, his neighbors, at Wannamoisett, and 
parts adjacent, shall henceforth be called and 
known by the name of Swansea." 

Mr. Paine as well as Captain Willett was 
a Pedobaptist. This official authorization of 
trustees to determine the terms of admission 
to citizenship led to a unique condition of 
things, not consonant with the principles of 
full, unrestricted religious liberty. 

It is said that Captain Willett, shortly af- 
ter the grant of territory, made the following 
propositions to his associates : 

'•'i. That no erroneous person be ad- 
mitted into the township, either as an inhabi- 
tant or a sojourner. 

2. That no man of any evil behaviour as 
contentious persons, &c., be admitted. 

3. That none may be admitted who may 
become a charge to the place." 



38 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

These propositions were presented to the 
church, and a reply defining with great par- 
ticularity the church's understanding of them 
was formulated and returned to Capt. Willett, 
officially signed "in behalf and in the name of 
the church meeting at Swansea" by John 
Myles, pastor, and John Butterworth. (See 
Appendix C, also Appendix D). This reply 
while admitting to citizenship all those who 
held different views from those entertained by 
the members of the church on the mode and 
the proper subjects of baptism, discriminated 
positively against all Roman Catholics, and all 
persons denying evangelical views which are 
enumerated at length, and "holding damnable 
heresies inconsistent with the faith of the gos- 
pel," Anglicans, Lutherans, Socinians, Sabba- 
tarians, Quakers and some others. "It is evi- 
dent," says the editor of Backus' History, "that 
this ancient Baptist church was not, at first, 
clear in the view that civil government has no 
right of interference with religious belief, and 
that it took upon itself the dangerous task of 
deciding between Christian doctrines as more 
or less essential." And Prof. A. H. Newman 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 39 

says : "Here we see a result of Myles' train- 
ing in connection with the state-church system 
of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. 
He had failed to grasp the great principle of 
absolute liberty of conscience which the mass 
of Antipedobaptists from the reformation time 
onward had consistently advocated and prac- 
ticed."* 

The Baptist interpretation of religion, that it 
is a matter between the individual soul and 
God, and that the soul in religious matters is 
amenable to no human authority, civil or ec- 
clesiastical, wherever it has been truly held, 
has always had for its corollary the sublime 



*S€e also Goodwin's "Pilgrim Republic," p. 524.— Hon. 
Georg-e F. Hoar delivered the oration at the 275th an- 
niversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, Dec. 21, 1S95. 
In extenuation of their failure to make a practical ap- 
plication of the principles of civil and religious liberty, 
he cited other illustrations of intolerance at that time, 
saying among other things: "Some of our Baptist 
friends wanted the term 'damnable heretics' to include 
Unitarians and to have them banished." This refer- 
ence, as he privately confessed, was to the church in 
Swansea and its action upon Captain Willett's pro- 
posals. VS^hile it is true that these Swansea Baptists 
did not propose to "banish" any one, they did consent 
to restrict the privileges of citizenship among them. 
But Senator Hoar should have remembered and ac- 
knowledged that in this respect they did not occupy 
the position, or reflect the sentiments, of the Baptists 
of their time in Providence, Newport and Boston. His 
statement would have been more just, if he had par- 
ticularized his reference, and asserted its wholly ex- 
ceptional character. 



40 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

doctrine of soul-liberty. Mr. Myles, who un- 
doubtedly drew up the reply to Capt. Willett's 
propositions, though facing in the right direc- 
tion, had not yet fully arrived. He needed to 
take a few lessons of Roger Williams and John 
Clarke. Though this reply seems like a decla- 
ration of principles, it should be said that there 
is no evidence that Swansea ever in a single 
instance carried out its religious restrictions 
against new comers. Pastor and people un- 
doubtedly soon fell into line with Providence, 
and Newport, and Boston, and joined hands 
with them in the struggle which was then wag- 
ing, for the separation of church and state, and 
did not reach its complete victory even in New 
England till more than a century and a half 
later.* 

It would be interesting, did time permit, to 
trace in detail the fortunes of the little church 
and community during the stormy times that 
soon followed in King Philip's war, and also 
to sketch the useful career of this brave man 

*It was not until the year 1833 that Massachusetts 
erased from its statute books the last trace of op- 
pressive religious legislation, and declared itself in 
favor of full religious liberty. See "New EJngland's 
Struggles for Religious Liberty," p. 247 sq., by Rev. 
David B. Ford, D. D. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 4I 

of God, who escaped the persecutions of the 
old world to suffer some persecution and much 
hardness, for the sake of truth and conscience, 
in the wilderness of the new world. The parish 
was a large one, and he was its only minister, 
some of his parishioners travelling five or six 
miles to enjoy his ministry, and all, whether 
Baptists or not, joining in his support. ''Pas- 
tor's lots" were set apart for his use. (See 
Appendix E.) A school was established by 
vote of the town in 1673 ''for the teaching of 
grammar, rhetoric, and arithmetic, and the 
tongues of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, also to 
read English and to write." Mr. Myles was 
chosen schoolmaster for the town. He must 
have been competent by reason of his Univer- 
sity training to teach these languages, but it is 
doubtful if a heavy demand was made upon his 
services in this direction. Very likely these 
languages were what would be denominated in 
modern times "electives" and not "required 
studies." In fulfilling his twofold office it was 
his custom to go from one section of the town 
to another with his Bible and schoolbooks in 
his saddle bags. He has been called "the Pes- 
talozzi of America." 



42 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

His appointment as schoolmaster seems to 
have been a Hfe tenure and to have been trans- 
ferrible. "It was voted and ordered * * * 
that a salary of £40 per annum in current 
country pay, which passeth from man to man, 
be duly paid from time to time, and at all times 
hereafter to the schoolmaster thereof, and that 
Mr. John Myles, the present pastor of the 
church here assembling, be the schoolmaster, 
otherwise to have power to dispose the same 
to an able schoolmaster, during the said pas- 
tor's life, and from and after his decease that 
the school and salary thereto belonging during 
their respective natural lives ; provided, never- 
theless, that the said school and forty pounds 
salary aforesaid shall be continued to the said 
John Myles, and to the said successive pastors 
for and during such time as he or they, and 
any or every one of them shall be contented to 
take their ministerial maintenance by weekly 
contributions and no longer." 

"It is further ordered that said school shall 
be only free to such children whose parents 
pay any rates towards the said school, and to 
none other, and that the schoolmaster and sue- 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 43 

cessive schoolmasters thereof for the time be- 
ing shall have liberty to take in any other 
scholars they think fit, to be educated there, 
and every scholar at first entrance shall pay 
twelve pence in silver towards buying of books 
for the said school." 

In the midst of the peace and prosperity of 
the community, the growth of the church, the 
provisions for the education of the young, the 
increasing comfort of the homes, suddenly, in 
1675, King Philip's war burst upon the town. 
An historian says: "Swansea received the 
first blow in this sanguinary war. Houses 
were robbed and cattle killed. Four days later 
the massacre commenced. Nine of the inhabi- 
tants were slain and seven wounded." Mr. 
Myles' house was used as a garrison, and he 
himself became the brave leader of his little 
flock in the defence of their firesides. Assist- 
ance arriving from neighboring towns, the In- 
dians fled, leaving in their wake mutilated 
bodies and burning buildings. The families of 
the parish were scattered, seeking shelter in 
Providence and Newport. Mr. Myles found 
his way to Boston, where in 1665, two years 



44 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

after the Swansea church was formed, a Bap- 
tist church had been organized under the 
leadership of Thomas Goold, who was a friend 
of Henry Dunster, the first president of Har- 
vard University, a man who was said to be "a 
miracle of scholarship," but being compelled to 
dissent from the scripturalness of infant bap- 
tism, or as Cotton Mather said : "having fallen 
into the briars of antipedobaptism," and being 
unable to recant, he was ejected from his of- 
fice.* 

President Dunster undoubtedly attended the 
early conferences of the Baptists in Boston, 



♦Brooks Adams, in "The Emancipation of Massachu- 
setts," p. 107, says: "Henry Dunster was an uncommon 
man. Famed for piety in an ag:e of fanaticism, learn- 
ed, modest, and brave, by the unremitting toil of 
thirteen years he raised Harvard from a school to the 
position which it has since held; and though very poor, 
and starving on a wretched and ill-paid pittance, he 
gave his beloved college one hundred acres of land at 
the moment of its sorest need. Yet he was a criminal, 
for he would not baptize infants, and he met with 
*the lenity and patience' (?) which the elders were not 
unwilling should be used toward the erring. He was 
indicted and convicted of disturbing church ordinances, 
and deprived of his office in October, 1654." See also 
Quincy's "History of Harvard," and "Life of Henry 
Dunster," by Jeremiah Chaplin, D. D. 

Thomas Hollis, a Baptist merchant of London, sub- 
sequently endowed professorships in Harvard Uni- 
versity and founded scholarships for the benefit of 
Baptist students, which are still administered by the 
University. See in Appendix F an illuminating letter 
from Mr. Hollis to Rev. Ephraim Wheaton, the third 
pastor of the Swansea church. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 45 

and had large influence in the development of 
their views and their establishment in the 
truth, but he died before it was deemed pru- 
dent, or found possible, openly to effect a 
church organization. Mr. Myles was acting 
pastor of the Boston church for fifteen months 
and more, the first pastor, Thomas Goold, hav- 
ing died Oct. 2.^, 1675, and his services were 
so acceptable that he was urged to remain as 
permanent pastor. His presence in Boston 
was not acceptable, however, to the Puritan 
authorities. He was arrested and brought be- 
fore the Governor's Council, charged with vio- 
lating the laws by holding unauthorized meet- 
ings for worship. After being reprimanded he 
was let go, inasmuch as he was only a so- 
journer in the Bay Colony, and expected to re- 
turn to his loved Swansea so soon as the In- 
dian war should be terminated. After the war 
was over, the people returned to their deso- 
lated homes to lay amid the ashes of their for- 
mer prosperity the foundations of a new life, 
domestic, civil, educational and religious. 

At a town meeting held May 2^], 1678, ''Jo^^^ 
Allen and John Brown were chosen to draw 



46 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

Up a letter in behalf of the church and town, to 
be sent to Mr. John Myles, pastor of the 
church and minister of the town, manifesting 
their desire of his return to them ; and Thomas 
Esterbrooks was chosen to carry the town's 
letter to Mr. Myles, at Boston." From this 
action it appears that in this town, on a small 
scale, church and state were pretty closely al- 
lied, if not actually wedded. It was the town 
that voted to build a new meeting house in the 
place of the one destroyed by the Indians, and 
determined its location, and to build also a new 
house for the pastor, "to indemnify him for 
debts due him in the time of the Indian war." 
This civil aid was not unknown in other New 
England towns, and indicated no right to in- 
terfere in church affairs. My Myles gave to 
the town the following receipt: ''Received of 
the town the full of all debts due to me from 
said town from the beginning of the world till 
the i8 of June, 1679." 

With the interruption of a visit or two to his 
brethren in Boston, to whom his visits were 
always most welcome, and frequent mission- 
ary excursions in the neighborhood, Mr. Myles 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 47 

Spent the little remainder of his eventful and 
laborious life with his Swansea church. He 
died Feb. 3, 1683, at the early age of 62 years, 
having spent twenty years in his adopted 
country. Such was his learning, his piety, his 
strength of character, his courage of convic- 
tion, his conciliatory spirit and his willingness 
to suffer for conscience and truth, that he 
commended himself to friends and foes alike.* 
Backus speaks of Mr. Myles, writing in 
1777, as the learned and pious Mr. Myles 
* * * * whose memory is still precious 
among us." Cotton Mather associates him 
with that eminent Baptist, who was in this 
country but a short time, viz. : Hanserd 
Knollys, and calls them "godly anabaptists," 

*Judged by the church covenant and the reply of the 
church to the proposals of Captain Willett, both of 
which were undoubtedly from the pen of Mr. Myles, he 
was evangelical in his doctrinal views and sufficiently 
Calvinistic, though he probably did not belong to the 
extreme wing as represented by a ministerial contem- 
porary, Rev. Mr. Treat of Eastham, whose biographer 
portrays him as a man of much kindness of heart, but 
a Calvinist of the straitest sect. "He did not profess 
that moderate Calvinism which is so common at the 
present time, and which by giving up, or explaining 
away the peculiar doctrines of the party like a porcu- 
pine disarmed of its quills, is unable to resist the 
feeblest attack, but consistent Calvinism, with all its 
hard and sharp points, by which it can courageously 
defend itself: in fine, such Calvinism as the adaman- 
tine author of the system would himself have avowed." 



48 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

who "have a respectful character in the 
churches of this wilderness." And a recent 
writer truthfully characterizes him as "a man 
of good talents and education, with unusual 
energy of character. He was liberal in his 
religious opinions, but not loose; he was an 
apostle and not a proselyter. His sacrifices for 
conscience's sake testify to his adherence to 
truth, and his interest in civil society is evinced 
by the labors which he undertook for its pros- 
perous advancement. His burial place is un- 
known, but it is supposed to be with many of 
his people, near his home and place of preach- 
ing, at Tyler's Point (now Barrington), Swan- 
sea. Silence alone marks the resting place of 
this pioneer and founder of a larger religious 
freedom, through the First Baptist church 
within the bounds of the present common- 
wealth of Massachusetts."* 

This silence which has so long marked the 
resting place of this lover of liberty, this father 
of a New England town, this founder of a 
church in the wilderness, this pioneer of a bet- 
ter civilization, is this day happily broken, and 

*Thomas W. Bicknell. in "John Myles and Religious- 
Toleration in Massachusetts." 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 49 

a suitable monument erected to his memory by 
the hands of an appreciative and thoughtful 
generosity. 

Of the descendants of Mr. Myles it may be 
said that his son, John, Jr., lived and died in 
Swansea, serving many years as clerk of the 
town, and that his only other son, Samuel, 
graduated at Cambridge in 1684, went to Eng- 
land and continued his studies, took orders in 
the church of England, and returning to Amer- 
ica became rector of King's Chapel in Boston 
in 1689, and continued in that office until his 
death in 1728. Several later descendants de- 
voted their property and lives to their country 
in the war of the American Revolution. Gen. 
Nelson A. Miles of our time has by his emi- 
nent service to his country added distinction to 
the name of his great ancestor. 

The strong personality of the founder of a 
local church often leaves its impress on the 
spiritual body, which he nourishes into being, 
and fosters during the period of its infancy. 
Roger Williams, John Clarke and John Myles 
were founders of churches, which have lived 
until now, and have influenced in no small 
measure the thought and life of their commun- 



50 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

ities, and indeed the life and the institutions of 
the whole nation. These churches were plant- 
ed within a narrow circle, in a little corner of 
our expanding republic; but their power has 
reached to our remotest boundaries. Indeed, 
it may be said without exaggeration "Their 
line is gone out throughout all the earth, and 
their words to the ends of the earth." 

This church in Swansea, cradled in suffer- 
ing and anointed with blood, though more re- 
mote than its neighbors from the tides of com- 
merce and of life, has maintained a prosperous 
spiritual existence, has been the mother of 
churches larger and stronger than itself (see 
Appendix H), and has filled up the measure 
of its numerous days with an honorable and 
beneficent service, whose annals no human pen 
can adequately record, and no human mind can 
fully comprehend. 

These churches of Jesus Christ, little or 
large, rural or urban, planted in the new com- 
munities of a growing nation, and often pre- 
sided over by university trained men, have 
been not only the divinely appointed means of 
extending the empire of him who said : "Fear 
not little flock, for it is your Father's good 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 5^ 

pleasure to give you the kingdom," but they 
have been the mighty agencies for the dissemi- 
nation of intelHgence and morahty, for the pro- 
duction of social and civic virtue, and for the 
promotion of peace, and prosperity, and true 
freedom among the people. They have given 
to men new and higher conceptions of national 
greatness and glory, and have filled with an 
ever-increasing beauty and spiritual signifi- 
cance our national emblem, which waves its 
bright colors on every breeze from ocean to 
ocean, the pride, the joy and the inspiration of 
a free, virtuous and united people, an emblem 
under which it is worth while to live, and for 
which, if need be, it is worth while to die, an 
emblem on which the eyes of the fathers, who 
laid in tears and blood the foundations of our 
churches and of our Republic, would look if 
they could, with inexpressible delight. 

''With its red for love. 

And its white for law. 
And its blue for the hope 

That our fathers saw 
Of a larger liberty." 



APPENDIX A. 

Covenant adopted by the constituent mem- 
bers of the church. 

"Holy Covenant." 

"Swansey in New England. A true copy of 
the Holy Covenant the first founders of Swan- 
sey entered into at the first beginning, and all 
the members thereof for divers years. 

Whereas, we poor creatures are, through the 
exceeding riches of God's infinite grace, mer- 
cifully snatched out of the kingdom of dark- 
ness, and by his infinite power translated into 
the kingdom of his dear Son, there to be par- 
takers with all the saints of all those privi- 
leges which Christ by the shedding of his prec- 
ious blood hath purchased for us, and that we 
do find our souls in some good measure 
wrought on by divine grace to desire to be 
conformable to Christ in all things, being also 
constrained by the matchless love and won- 
derful distinguishing mercies that we abund- 
antly enjoy from his most free grace to serve 



REV. JOHN MYLES. $3 

him according to our utmost capacities, and 
that we also know that it is our most bounden 
duty to walk in visible communion with Christ 
and each other according to the prescript rule 
of his most Holy Word, and also that it is our 
undoubted right through Christ to enjoy all 
the privileges of God's house which our souls 
for a long time panted after, and finding no 
other way at present by the all-working provi- 
dence of our only wise God and gracious 
Father to us opened for the enjoying of the 
same, we do therefore, after often and sol- 
emn seeking to the Lord for help and direc- 
tion in the fear of his holy name, and with 
hands lifted up to Him, the most High God, 
humbly and freely offer up ourselves this day 
a living sacrifice unto Him, who is our God in 
covenant through Christ our Lord and only 
Saviour, to walk together according to his re- 
vealed Word in the visible gospel relation both 
to Christ, our only Head, and to each other as 
fellow-members and brethren of the same 
household of faith. And we do humbly pray 
that through his strength we will henceforth 
endeavor to perform all our respective duties 



54 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

towards God and each other, and to practice all 
the ordinances of Christ according to what is 
or shall be revealed to us in our respective 
place, to exercise, practice and submit to the 
government of Christ in this his church, viz. : 
further protesting against all rending or di- 
viding principles or practices from any of the 
people of God as being most abominable and 
loathsome to our souls and utterly inconsist- 
ent with that Christian charity which declares 
men to be Christ's disciples. Indeed, further 
declaring in that as union in Christ is the sole 
ground of our communion, each with other, 
so we are ready to accept of, receive to and 
hold communion with all such by judgment 
of charity we conceive to be fellow-members 
with us in our Head, Christ Jesus, though dif- 
fering from us in such controversial points as 
are not absolutely and essentially necessary to 
salvation. We also hope that though of our- 
selves we are altogether unworthy and unfit 
thus to offer up ourselves to God or to do Him 
a, or to expect any favor with, or mercy from 
Him, He will graciously accept of this our 
freewill offering in and through the merit 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 55 

and mediation of our dear Redeemer, and that 
he will employ and improve us in this service 
to his praise, to whom be all glory, honor, now 
and forever. Amen. 

The names of the persons that first joined 
themselves in the covenant aforesaid as a 
church of Christ, 

John Myles, Elder, 
James Brown^ 
Nicholas Tanner, 
Joseph Carpenter, 
John Butterworth_^ 
Eldad Kingsley, 
Benjamin Alby.'^ 



APPENDIX B. 

Grant of New Swansea. 
"Whereas, Liberty hath been formerly 
granted by the Court for the jurisdiction of 
New Plymouth, unto Captain Thomas Willett 
and his neighbors of Wannamoisett, to become 
a township there if they should see good, and 
that lately the said Capt. Willett and Mr. 
Myles and others their neighbors have re- 
quested of the Court that they may become a 
township there or near thereabout, and like- 
wise to have granted unto them such parcels 
of land as might be accomimodating thereunto, 
not disposed of to other townships ; this Court 
have granted unto them all such lands that ly- 
eth between the salt water bay and coming up 
Taunton river, viz. : all the land between the 
salt water and river, and the bounds of Taun- 
ton and Rehoboth not prejudicing any man's 
particular interest; and for as much as Reho- 
both hath meadow land within the line of 
Wannamoisett, and Wannamoisett hath lands 
within of Rehoboth, lying near the south line 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 57 

of Rehoboth; if the two townships cannot 
agree about them amongst themselves, the 
Court reserves it within their power to deter- 
mine any such controversy. 

1667, March. The Court have appointed 
Capt. Thomas Willett, Mr. Paine, Senior, Mr. 
Browne, John Allen, and John Butterworth, 
to have the trust of admittance of town in- 
habitants into the said town, and to have the 
disposal of the land therein, and ordering the 
other affairs of said town. 

The Court do allow and approve that the 
township granted unto Capt. Thomas Willett 
and others his neighbors at Wannamoisett and 
parts adjacent, shall henceforth be called and 
known by the name of Swansey." 



APPENDIX C. 

Reply of the Church to the Propositions of 
Capt. Thomas Willett. 

''Whereas, Capt. Thomas Willett shortly 
after the grant of this township, made the fol- 
lowing proposals unto those who were with 
him, and by the Court at Plymouth empowered 
for the admission of inhabitants and granting 
of lots, viz. : 

1. That no erroneous person be admitted 
into the township either as an inhabitant or 
sojourner. 

2. That no man of any evil behavior as 
contentious persons, etc., be admitted. 

3. That none may be admitted that may 
become a charge to the place. 

The church of Christ here gathered and 
assembling did thereupon make the following 
address unto the said Capt. Willett and his as- 
sociates, the trustees aforesaid. 

(part of the record torn off.) 
being with you engaged (according to our ca- 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 59 

pacity) in the carrying on of a township ac- 
cording to the grant given us by the honored 
Court, and desiring to lay such a foundation 
thereof as may effectually tend to God's glory, 
our future peace and comfort, and the real 
benefit of such as shall hereafter join with us 
herein, and also to prevent all future jealousies 
and causes of dissatisfaction or disturbances 
in so good a work, do in relation to the three 
proposals made by our much honored Capt. 
Willett, humbly present to your serious con- 
sideration (before we further proceed therein) 
that the said proposals may be consented to 
and subscribed by all and every townsman 
under the following explications : 

That the first proposal relating to the non- 
admission of erroneous persons may be only 
understood under the explications following, 
viz.: of such damnable heresies inconsistent 
with the faith of the gospel, as to deny the 
Trinity or any person there ; the Deity or sin- 
less humanity of Christ, or the union of both 
natures in him, or his full satisfaction of the 
divine justice by his active and passive obe- 
dience for all his elect, or his resurrection, as- 



60 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

cension to heaven, intercession, or his second 
personal coming to judgment; or else to deny 
the truth or divine authority of any part of 
canonical Scripture, or the resurrection of the 
dead, or to maintain any merit of works, con- 
substantiation, transubstantiation, giving di- 
vine adoration to any creature, or any other 
anti-Christian doctrine, thereby directly op- 
posing the priestly, prophetical or kingly of- 
fice of Christ, or any part thereof. 

Or secondly, of such as hold such opinions 
as are inconsistent with the well-being of the 
place, as to deny the magistrate's power to 
punish evil doers as well as to encourage those 
that do well, or to deny the first day of the 
week to be observed by divine institution as 
the Lord's or Christian Sabbath, or to deny the 
giving of honor to whom honor is due, or to 
oppose those civil respects that are usually 
performed according to the laudable custom of 
our nation each to other as bowing the knee or 
body, etc. 

Or else, to deny the office, use, or authority 
of the ministry, or a comfortable maintenance 
to be due to them from such as partake of the 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 6l 

teaching, or to speak reproachfully of any of 
the churches of Christ in the country, or of 
any such other churches as are of the same 
common faith with us and them. 

We desire that it be also understood and de- 
clared, that this is not understood of any hold- 
ing any opinion different from others in any 
disputable point yet in controversy among the 
godly learned, the belief thereof being not es- 
sentially necessary to salvation such as pedo- 
baptism, anti-pedo-baptism, church discipline, 
or the like, but that the minister or ministers 
of the said town may take their liberty to bap- 
tize infants or grown persons as the Lord 
shall persuade their consciences, and so also 
the inhabitants to take their liberty to bring 
their children to baptism or forbear. 

That the second proposal relating to the 
known reception of any evil behavior such as 
contentious persons, etc., may be only under- 
stood of those truly so called, and not of those 
who are different in judgment in the particu- 
lars last mentioned, and may be therefore 
accounted contentious by some, though they 
are in all fundamentals of faith orthodox in 



62 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

judgment, and excepting common infirmities, 
blameless in conversation. 

That the proposal relating to the non-ad- 
mission of such as may become a charge to the 
town, be only understood so as that it may not 
hinder any godly man from coming among us 
whilst there is accommodation that may sat- 
isfy him, if some responsible townsman will be 
bound to save the town harmless. 

These humble tenders of our desires, we 
hope you will without offence receive, excus- 
ing us herein, considering that God's glory, 
the future peace and well-being, not only of us 
and of our posterity who shall settle here, but 
also of those several good and peaceable- 
minded men whom you already know are like, 
though with very inconsiderable outward ac- 
commodation, to come amongst us, are very 
much concerned herein; our humble prayers 
both for ourselves and you is that our God 
would be pleased to cause us to aim more and 
more at his glory and less at our own earthly 
concernment, that so we may improve the 
favors that have been handed to us by our 
honored, nursing fathers, to the advancement 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 63 

of the glory of God, the interest of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and to the common benefit, both 
of the township and colony where He hath pro- 
videntially disposed of us to serve our genera- 
tion. 

Your brethren to serve you in Christ. Sign- 
ed on the behalf and in the name of the 
church meeting at Swansey, by 

John Myles, Pastor, 
John Butterworth.'' 



APPENDIX D. 

Action of the town upon the propositions of 
Capt. Willett, containing undoubtedly a com- 
plete list of the inhabitants, including the 
members of the church. 

"The foregoing proposals being according 
to the desire of the church aforesaid, fully and 
absolutely condescended to, concluded and 
agreed upon by and between the said Capt. 
Thomas Willett and his associates aforesaid 
and the said church, under the reservation and 
explications above written, and every of them, 
it was sometime afterward propounded at a 
meeting of the said town, lawfully warned on 
the two and twentieth day of the twelfth 
month, 1669, that the said agreement might be 
by the whole town ratified and confirmed, and 
settled as a foundation order to which all that 
then were, or afterwards should be admitted 
inhabitants, and to receive lands from the 
town, should manifest their assent by subscrip- 
tion thereunto, whereupon the following order 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 65 

(the said Capt. Willett and his associates 
aforesaid being present), was freely passed by 
the whole town, nemine contradicente. 

At a town meeting lawfully warned on the 
two and twentieth day of the twelfth month, 
commonly called February, in the year of our 
Lord 1669, it is ordered that all persons that 
are or shall be admitted inhabitants within this 
town, shall subscribe to the three proposals 
above written ; to the several conditions and 
explanations therein expressed, before any lot 
of land be confirmed to them or to any of them. 

We whose names are here underwritten, do 
freely upon our admission to be inhabitants of 
this town of Swansey, assent to the above 
written agreement, made between the church 
of Christ now meeting here at Swansey, and 
Capt. Thomas Willett and his associates ; as 
the said agreement is specified and declared in 
the three proposals aforewritten, with the sev- 
eral conditions and explanations thereof, con- 
cerning the present and future settlement of 
this township. In witness whereof, we have 
hereunto subscribed: 

Thomas Willett, John Myles, John Allen, 



66 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

James Browne, Nicholas Tanner, Hugh Cole, 
Benjamin Alby, John Browne, Samuel 
Wheaton, Thomas Barnes, Thomas Easter- 
brooke, Richard Sharp, William Ingraham, 
Thomas Manning, William Cahoone, George 
Aldrich, Nathaniel Lewis, John Thurber, 
Jonathan Bosworth, Joseph Lewis, William 
Haywood, John Thurber, Gerard Ingraham, 
Zachariah Eddy, Hezekiah Luther, John Pad- 
dock, Samuel Luther, Caleb Eddy, John Myles, 
Jr., Thomas Lewis, Joseph Carpenter, Robert 
Jones, Eldad Kingsley, John Martin, John 
Cole, Joseph Wheaton, Nathaniel Paine, 
Stephen Brace, Gideon Allen, John Dickse, 
William Bartram, Joseph Kent, Samuel Wood- 
bury, Nehemiah Allen, Sampson Mason, Job 
Winslow, Obadiah Bowen, Jr., Richard Bur- 
ges, John Butterworth, John West, Thomas 
Elliot, Timothy Brooks, Nathaniel Toogood, 
Jeremiah Child, Obadiah Bowen, Sr." 



APPENDIX E. 

Remarkable division of the inhabitants of 
Swansea into three ranks according to their 
character and influence. 

Under date of February 7, 1670, the follow- 
ing order was passed : 

"That all lots and divisions of land that are 
or hereafter shall be granted to any particular 
person, shall be proportioned according to the 
three ranks and written so, that where those of 
the first rank shall have three acres, those of 
the second rank shall have two acres, and those 
of the third rank shall have one acre, and that 
it shall be in the power of the selectmen for 
the time being, or committee for admission of 
inhabitants, to admit of and place such as shall 
be received as inhabitants into either of the 
said ranks as they shall judge fit, till the full 
number of threescore such inhabitants shall 
be made up, and that when the said number of 
threescore is accomplished, the lands that are 
already bought shall be divided and propor- 



68 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

tioned according to the said three- fold ranks; 
that in the meantime, the said selectmen or 
committee shall have full power to grant lots 
unto such persons as may not be placed into 
any of the said ranks, until further order pro- 
vides; the grants not to exceed nine acres to 
a man." 

Then follow three columns of names, num- 
bering, however, only forty-eight in all, divid- 
ed as follows : nine in the first column, 
twenty-three in the second column, and six- 
teen in the third column. 'A pastor's lot' and 
'a teacher's lot' are placed in the first column, 
and *a schoolmaster's' in the second. 

The record given above is as found in Bay- 
lies' 'History of New Plymouth.' What the 
basis of division was does not appear. Of the 
seven constituent members of the Baptist 
church, three are found in the first column, 
viz. : Mr. John Myles, pastor, James Browne, 
and John Butterworth, three are found in the 
second column, viz. : Nicholas Tanner, Benja- 
min Alby and Joseph Carpenter, and Eldad 
Kinsley appears in the third column. 

On February 12, 1670, "to prevent the bring- 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 69 

ing in of such persons to be inhabitants as may 
be to the prejudice of the town, it was ordered 
that whosoever hath taken or shall take up any 
lot therein and shall let out, give, or sell the 
same, or any part thereof, to any person or 
persons whatever, without the consent of the 
town or at least of the committee that are or 
shall be chosen for the management of the 
prudential affairs of the town at any time 
hereafter; then the person or persons that 
shall so let out, give, or sell as aforesaid, shall 
forfeit their whole right in such lot and build- 
ings thereon, from them, their heirs and as- 
signs, to the use of the town forever." 

This certainly looks like a very careful over- 
sight of the character of the inhabitants, not 
to say a rigid and despotic restriction of the 
rights and liberties of freemen. Baylies com- 
menting on this condition of civil affairs, re- 
marks : "This division of the people into ranks 
presents a remarkable and unique feature in 
town history. It existed nowhere else in the 
colony; fancy can almost discern in this ar- 
rangement the rudiments of the three Roman 
orders, Patrician, Equestrian and Plebeian. 



^Q REV. JOHN MYLES. 

This power was assumed by the five persons 
appointed by the Court to regulate the admis- 
sion of town inhabitants in 1667, and after- 
wards was exercised by committees appointed 
by the town. These committees seemed to 
have exercised the authority of censors, and 
have degraded and promoted from one rank 
to another at discretion." 

The committee for the admission of inhabi- 
tants in 1681 was James Brown, Sr., John 
Allen, Sr., and John Butterworth. They 
granted to several persons of the first class, 
their heirs and assigns forever, "the full right 
and intent of the highest rank," etc. It has 
been well said by Mr. Bicknell ("Historical 
Sketches," etc., p. 83). "The establishment 
of ranks had already created a landed aristoc- 
racy; this act of the committee proceeded a 
step further and made the rank hereditary. 
The inhabitants of the town began to under- 
stand the tendency of their extraordinary rules 
on this subject. Although great dissatisfac- 
tion had been caused by the several assign- 
ments of ranks, and the promotions and degra- 
dations from one rank to another, they had 



REV. JOHN MYLES. /I 

not been led to see the purely undemocratic 
tendency of their regulations, until the fur- 
ther singular action of the committee occa- 
sioned a unanimous protest on the part of the 
town, and a declaration that the act was ut- 
terly void and of no effect. From this time 
the ranking system was wholly neglected, and 
this element of feudal tyranny enjoyed but a 
short life in our old town." 

This unique and unparalleled condition of 
things which was an anachronism and an 
anomaly in a Pilgrim community, survived 
only eleven years. The wonder is that it was 
ever created. 



APPENDIX F. 

Letter from Thomas Mollis of London: 
Rev. Ephraim Wheaton, the third pastor of 
the church, was associate pastor with Rev. 
Samuel Luther from 1704 to 1716, and on the 
death of Mr. Luther was sole pastor until his 
own death, April 26, 1734. His ministry was 
greatly blessed to the strengthening and en- 
largement of the church. About the year 1721 
fifty persons were baptized and added to the 
church. The pastor sent an account of this 
revival to Mr. Thomas Hollis, an eminent 
Baptist merchant in London, who gave to Har- 
vard University to found Hollis professorships 
and scholarships a sum now estimated at $46,- 
671.00. This was the largest single gift which 
the University had received at that time, and 
was a generous provision for the education of 
young men for the Baptist ministry. The let- 
ter called forth the following reply from Mr. 
Hollis, which has been preserved in the records 
of the church. It was accompanied with a gift 
of books to Mr. Wheaton. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 73 

"London, March 13, 1722-3. 
Dear Sir — I rejoice in the success of your 
ministry and increase of your church, which 
will naturally increase your cares and your 
joy. I mourn because of the ignorance of your 
sleeping Sabbatarians. Let us be thankful for 
our light, pity them, pray for them, and en- 
deavor in love to lead them into the light. 
God, that hath shined into our hearts by his 
gospel, can lead them from Sinai's covenant 
and the law of ceremonies into the liberty of 
the new covenant and the grace thereof. I 
pity to see professors drawing back to the 
law, and T desire to remember our standing is 
by grace ; therefore not to be high-minded over 
them, but fear, remembering our Lord's words, 
Vatch and pray lest ye enter into temptation.' 
Every word of God is precious. The saints 
love it, and they that honor Him, He will 
honor, and in keeping of it there is present 
peace and a promise of future reward. We 
now live by faith and not by sight. He that 
endureth to the end shall be saved. Go on 
sowing the seed, looking up to Him whose 
work it is, whoever be the planter or the 



74 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

waterer ; and as you abound in your labors and 
find Him multiplying seed unto you, may you 
yet abound more and more, is my sincere wish. 
Let no man rob us of our comfortable hope 
that when we cease to be here we shall be pres- 
ent with the Lord, in whose presence, the saint 
believes, is fullness of joy, in a separate state, 
and an expectation of greater in the resurrec- 
tion, when it shall be manifested how He loved 
them. Let none jeer us out of our duty now 
to lisp forth His praise, since hereafter we ex- 
pect to sing in a better manner the song of 
the Lamb in a nobler chorus. 

In reference to your poll tax and other taxes 
which are necessary for the support of gov- 
ernment and society, they are not to be esteem- 
ed a burden, 'Tis giving tribute of tithes to 
whom tribute is due, unless the taxes oppress 
you unequally because you are Baptists and 
Separatists. If so, then let me know (who 
profess myself a Baptist), and I will endeavor 
to have a word spoken for you to the Gover- 
nor, that you be eased. 

You know that your profession is not popu- 
lar in your country or ours, few, if any of the 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 75 

great men submitting to a plain institution. 
And as we profess ourselves the disciples of 
Christ, 'tis our duty to take up 'our cross' with 
patience, and pay parochial duty where we 
live, and voluntarily to maintain our own 
charges, thankful for our liberty as men and 
Christians, to our good God, who in His provi- 
dence, has inspired many magistrates and min- 
isters in your provinces with a truer spirit of 
Catholic charity than formerly. 

You have heard, or may be informed by Mr. 
Callender, of my founding in Harvard Col- 
lege, and the provision I have made for Bap- 
tist youths to be educated for the ministry and 
equally regarded with Pedo-Baptists. If you 
know any duly qualified inform me, and I 
shall be glad to recommend them for the first 
vacancy. And to close: while we profess to 
worship God nearer to the rule of primitive 
institution and practice of our great Prophet 
and Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his 
Apostles, let our light so shine before men, in 
all holy conversation, that such as may be ready 
to speak evil of our way be ashamed. May 
serious religion and godliness, in the power of 



76 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

it, flourish among you, and everything that 
goes in to make a true Christian. Where the 
true image of Christ is found in any I call 
them the excellent of the earth. With such I 
delight to associate and worship, whatever de- 
nomination they may go by among men, and 
this I would do till Vv^e all come into the unity 
of the spirit, etc. And now, dear sir, I com- 
mend you to God and to the word of His 
grace, etc. Acts xx:32. 

Your loving friend, 

Thos. Mollis. 
To Mr. Ephraim Wheaton, 
■ Minister in Swansea, New England." 

This letter is interesting not only as reveal- 
ing the devout, catholic, truth-loving, peace- 
loving spirit of the author, and his generous 
sympathy for his American brethren, but also 
as bearing witness to the presence of Sabba- 
tarians in Swansea at that time, and to the 
existence of some sort of oppressive legisla- 
tion against the Baptists, which they were ex- 
horted to bear patiently until it was unendur- 
able. In that case Mr. Hollis would intercede 
with the Governor of the colony in their be- 
half. 



' APPENDIX G. 

The attempt to found a Baptist church at 
Weymouth and its author. 

In 1639 an attempt was made at Weymouth 
to organize a Baptist church, which was ren- 
dered unsuccessful by the opposition of the 
Magistrates. This attempt was the result, it 
has been said, of the visit "of Hanserd KnoUys, 
a Baptist preacher from London, who went 
through the Plymouth towns publishing his 
sentiments in 1638." The authority for this 
statement is Hon. John W. Davis, ex-Governor 
of Rhode Island, in an address at the 250th an- 
niversary of the settlement of Rehoboth. The 
impression which it makes is that Knollys was 
a Baptist at that time. This is the view also 
found in Cathcart's Baptist Encyclopaedia. 
The evidence is against its correctness. Han- 
serd Knollys was born in Cawkwell, Lincoln- 
shire, England, in 1598, and probably grad- 
uated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He 
was ordained as a Presbyter in the Church of 
England, and held the living at Humberstone 



yS REV. JOHN MYLES. 

two or three years, resigning it because he had 
scruples as to "the lawfuhiess of using the 
surpHce, the cross in baptism, and the admis- 
sion of persons of profane character to the 
Lord's Supper." He came out openly as a 
Puritan about 1636. After suffering imprison- 
ment and other forms of persecution he sought 
refuge in New England, arriving in Boston in 
July, 1638. He was not altogether welcome, 
being immediately suspected of antinomianism. 
Upon invitation he went to Piscataqua, IMaine 
(now Dover, N. H.), and organized there the 
First Church which was of the Puritan order. 
(See Winthrop's History of New England I, 
392). His mind was in a transition state. He 
was becoming more and more an advanced 
Separatist. Owing to growing differences of 
opinion with his associate and some of the 
people, and some charges against his personal 
character, he returned to Boston. ( For a can- 
did discussion of the nature of those charges, 
and their probable baselessness, see sketch of 
Knollys in Sprague's Annals of the American 
Baptist Pulpit). Intending at first to settle 
elsewhere in the new world, he abandoned his 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 79 

purpose at the urgent entreaty of his aged 
father and returned to England in December, 
1641. 

Sometime during this visit of less than three 
years he must have preached in Plymouth 
colony, and infected others with his changing 
views, which after his departure ripened into 
Baptist convictions. He was at that time 
charged with ana-baptism (see N. H. Provin- 
cial Papers I, 120, 123, also Belknap's New 
Hampshire I, 44), as was Roger Williams 
soon after his arrival in this country. It was 
after his" return to England that Knollys be- 
came a Baptist and identified himself with that 
denomination. Persecution again overtook 
him. He was fined, stoned and imprisoned. 
His labors were abundant. He was a success- 
ful teacher and industrious author. He was 
master of several languages. He was pastor 
of a congregation of a thousand persons. He 
was a chaplain in the army, and at one time a 
fugitive on the continent. He was acknowl- 
edged on both sides of the Atlantic, by those 
who did not hold his views as well as by those 
who did, to be "d, godly man" and "a learned 



80 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

scholar." He was one of the leading men of 
his denomination. He died in London in 1691 
at the age of ninety-three. The Baptists in 
England in 1845 organized a Publication So- 
ciety to which they gave his name. (See Me- 
morial Address of Rev. A. H. Quint, D. D., 
at 250th Anniversary of the First Parish in 
Dover, N. H.) 



APPENDIX H. 

New Churches and Early Pastors. 

The following churches have been formed 
from the Swansea church ; Oak Swamp or- 
ganized in 1732, of which Rev. John Comer 
was pastor; Bellingham in 1736; Oswego, N. 
Y., in 1759, to which place a colony removed; 
Warren, R. L, in 1764, and Seekonk, now 
First East Providence, in 1794. According to 
Bliss "no less than seven Baptist churches 
were formed in Rehoboth." Backus speaks 
of ten churches as having been organized 
there, representing different phases of belief, 
but substantially Baptist churches, some of 
which became extinct. Those were days of 
independent thinking and of extreme con- 
scientiousness, when it did not require a great 
difiference of opinion to split a church, and 
create a new denomination. And yet the 
cause prospered and many followers were won. 
Benedict says "Truly may old Rehoboth claim 
to have done much for the Baptist cause ; and 
if all the members who have emigrated to other 



S2 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

parts, or have lived and died within its bounds, 
if all the ministers who have been born in this 
extensive domain, or who have officiated in its 
bounds in connection with the various 
churches and interests of the Baptists could be 
enrolled in one list, it would not be small." 
Asplund mentions ten Baptist churches in Re- 
hoboth and Swansea in 1790 — two called Reg- 
ular, three Six Principle, one of which had a 
plurality of elders, of whom one was called a 
"travelling" elder, two Open Communion, and 
three recorded as No Communion. Surely the 
old Swansea church was the prolific mother of 
churches. It is claimed that twenty-seven 
churches from first to last have traced their 
pedigree to her, not all of them remaining true 
to type, and several of them undoubtedly hav- 
ing fought a good fight before finishing their 
course, though they may not have kept the 
faith. 

After Mr. Myles' decease the church was 
presided over by devoted and worthy men. In 
1685 Samuel Luther was called by the church 
to succeed Mr. Myles, with the concurrence of 
the voters of the town, and continued in office 



REV. JOHN MYLES. §3 

until 1 7 17. He was succeeded by Ephraim 
Wheaton, who had been his colleague for thir- 
teen years, and remained sole pastor until his 
death in 1734. Samuel Maxwell and Benja- 
min Harrington served the church for brief 
periods. In 175 1 Jabez Wood became pastor, 
and performed the duties of the office for 
thirty-two years, bringing the history of the 
church down to near the close of the 
eighteenth century. 

Of Samuel Luther, the second pastor, it may 
be said that he was one of the first settlers of 
the town of Swansea and was probably a 
Welsh immigrant. His name appears in the 
action of the town on the Willett proposals. 
•He bore the name of "Captain." During his 
ministry the meeting house was removed to 
near Myles' Bridge. He is said to have been 
"a man of character and talents, and to have 
discharged the duties of his office with exem- 
plary fideHty." 

Ephraim Wheaton, the third pastor, was a 
son of Robert Wheaton, one of the Welsh im- 
migrants, and a tanner by trade. He was born 
in 1659, ^^^ was therefore a child of four 



84 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

years when the family came to America. 
What his educational advantages were, if he 
had any, we are not informed. He is said to 
have "exerted a great and good influence on 
the church and on others also. His ministry 
was emimently successful and the church was 
highly prosperous." Some of his posterity ac- 
quired distinction in their professions. A great 
grandson, Dr. Levi P. Wheaton, graduated 
from R. I. College (now Brown University) 
in 1778, ''served in a military hospital in Prov- 
idence, was afterwards surgeon upon an armed 
privateer and being taken a British prisoner, 
was put in charge of a prison ship in New 
York." He subsequently lived in Providence, 
where he practiced the profession of medicine 
for fifty years and more, being a learned man 
and an able physician. Henry Wheaton, the 
distinguished diplomatist and jurist, was a de- 
scendant of the fourth generation. 



APPENDIX I. 

Was the Swansea Church a Baptist 

Church ? 
An interesting question is suggested by Mr. 
Bicknell in ''Historical Sketches of Barring- 
ton," p. 179, viz.: Was the church founded by 
Mr. Myles at first a Baptist church ? Even the 
suggestion of a doubt on this point will occa- 
sion no little surprise, for it is opposed to the 
unvarying belief of all students of the period. 
Mr. Bicknell's language is as follows: "The 
broad and catholic basis of the Baptist church 
which was formed on New Meadow Neck in 
1663, and which maintained its worship near 
Burial Place Hill and at Tyler's Point until 
16 — /drew to its fellowship all denominations 
of Christians in the community. It may fairly 
be questioned whether it was a Baptist church 
at all, save in name, or whether Parson Myles 
was not as truly a Congregationalist as a Bap- 
tist. Certainly the old church covenant and 



86 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

the ordinances as administered by the good 
elder would be accepted as fair Congregational 
doctrine at the present time,and certain it was, 
too, that Parson Luther felt the need of mak- 
ing certain amendments to that noble instru- 
ment of conscience-liberty and Christian 
brotherhood, in order that he might be able to 
distinguish and separate the flock of the true 
Baptist fold." 

This question as to the distinctive character 
of the church at the beginning seems to be 
based upon its catholicity as indicated in the 
original covenant of the church and in the 
terms of the acceptance of Mr. Willett's propo- 
sition, and also upon the supposed attitude of 
the second pastor, Mr. Luther, who is thought 
to have been a stricter constructionist than 
Mr. Myles as to the teachings of the New 
Testament and the Christian ordinances. 
What "supplementary notes to the original 
covenant," if any, "which were not relished 
by the Congregational element" in the com- 
munity, Mr. Luther added, we may not be able 
to say ; but in course of time there grew to be 
in the growing town which was increasing by 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 8/ 

new comers, a division of sentiment on several 
points. The settlements of the town were re- 
mote from each other, which occasioned a 
change in the location of the meeting house to 
the inconvenience of some of the people. 
When Sir William Phipps brought the charter 
which absorbed the Plymouth Colony in the 
Massachusetts Bay, a new order of things un- 
der Puritan jurisdiction was sought to be in- 
troduced which was opposed to the convic- 
tions of most of the people, on the right of the 
civil government to interfere in church affairs, 
though evidently to some persons, probably the 
later arrivals who were not sufficiently en- 
lightened on the point and did not accept the 
voluntary system in religion, the new order 
was welcome. These with other things led to 
a determination to secure a division of the 
town. This effort Mr. Luther and a large ma- 
jority of the citizens opposed, believing it to 
be unwise and unnecessary. Mr. Luther's 
name heads the protest, and very likely he was 
active in his opposition. At any rate his min- 
istry was no longer acceptable to the "new 
comers," who sent petition after petition for 



88 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

the division of the town to Governor Joseph 
Dudley and the Massachusetts Court, saying 
"we being well assured of this honorable Gen- 
eral Court's power and good will to help in 
such cases, from their repeated acts of like 
nature, do the more freely open our malady 
which bespeaks pity and cure." These words 
are taken from the first petition which was sent 
in 171 1, in which they go so far as to say we 
have "no settled minister learned and ortho- 
dox, no church of Christ settled in order, no 
pastor to feed Christ's lambs among us." They 
had evidently completely withdrawn from Mr. 
Luther's ministry at that time, if they had ever 
been under it. 

The Court of Quarter Sessions had pre- 
viously issued a warrant requiring the town to 
choose a minister according to law, that is, ac- 
cording to the prescribed "orthodox" method, 
Puritan Massachusetts seeking to dictate to 
the town, and enforce upon it the support of 
church and minister by public tax. To this 
warrant they replied after much warm debate : 
"They had a minister that they apprehended 
was according to law, viz. : the Elder Samuel 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 89 

Luther, and desired the vote of the town to 
see their assent and approbation." 

The third attempt to secure the division of 
the town was successful, and the petition was 
granted by an order of the Massachusetts 
Court November i8, 1717. Some time between 
171 1 and 1717 a Congregational church was 
formed with Rev. James Wilson as pastor, and 
immediately upon the creation of the new 
township it undertook the minister's support 
in the Puritan "orthodox" way. This method 
the town discontinued in 1746, soon after Bar- 
rington (the name by which it was called) 
passed under the jurisdiction of Rhode Island, 
and breathed the freer atmosphere of unre- 
stricted religious liberty. 

It looks very much as if the changed condi- 
tions in the town were brought about quite as 
much by the introduction of a new element 
under the liberal conditions of citizenship in 
favor of pedo-Baptists as by any change in 
the views and practices of the Baptist church. 
At any rate there appears to be no sufficient 
evidence that Mr. Myles and his companions 
were not Baptists from the beginning. That 



90 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

they were "liberal," to use the word in the 
customary acceptation, is evident from both 
the covenant and the terms of agreement as to 
the conditions of citizenship, that is, liberal 
towards the Congregationalists, but decidedly 
not so towards those of other religious faiths, 
which denied the doctrine of the Trinity, the 
Deity of Christ, the atonement, the authority 
of the Scriptures and many other specified 
doctrines. 

The covenant declares that "they would 
walk together according to his revealed word 
* * ^ * as brethren of the same house- 
hold of faith * * * * and that as 
union with Christ is the sole ground of our 
communion each with other, we are ready to 
accept of, receive to and hold communion with 
all such by judgment of charity we conceive 
to be fellow-members with us in our Head, 
Christ Jesus." These words evidently express 
their terms of communion in the Lord's Sup- 
per. They were open communionists, as were 
many Baptists in those days and as are some 
at the present time. There is no intimation 
that they practiced any other baptism than 
their name implies. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 9^ 

In the articles of agreement as to the condi- 
tions of citizenship they grant full liberty to all 
who may come among them to administer and 
receive such form of baptism as they think 
right and according to their interpretation of 
the Scriptures. "The minister or ministers of 
the said town may take their liberty to baptize 
infants or grown persons as the Lord shall 
persuade their consciences, and so also the in- 
habitants to take their liberty to bring their 
children to baptism or forbear." A fair inter- 
pretation of these words is that they granted 
to others the same rights and liberties that 
they claimed for themselves. They did not 
expect it would always remain exclusively a 
Baptist town. Indeed it was not such then. 
They were speaking of the terms of citizenship, 
and not of the terms of church membership. 
There is no intimation that for themselves they 
accepted or offered any baptism but that which 
they believed Christ enjoined and his apostles 
practiced. This is the very essense of true 
liberalism, not the surrender of one's own hon- 
est conviction, but the granting to others the 
same liberty of conscience and of conduct that 
is claimed. 



92 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

A reference to the covenant of the old 
Swansea church will prove beyond a question 
the belief and practice of Mr. Myles and his 
companions in the matter of baptism. "We 
cannot but admire at the unsearchable wis- 
dom, power and love of God, in bringing about 
his own designs, far above and beyond the ca- 
pacity and understanding of the wisest of men. 
Thus, to the glory of his own great name hath 
He dealt with us ; for when there had been 
no company or society of people holding forth 
and professing the doctrine, worship, order 
and discipline of the gospel, according to the 
primitive institution, that ever we heard of in 
all Wales, since the apostacy, it pleased the 
Lord to choose this dark corner to place His 
name in and honor us, undeserving creatures, 
with the happiness of being the first in all 
these parts, among whom was practiced the 
glorious ordinance of baptism, and here to 
gather the first church of baptized believers.'' 



APPENDIX J. 

Swansea Song and Dedicatory Address. 

SWANSEA SONG. 

Written by Hezekiah Butterworth. 

^'Freedom, God and Right!" 

The old Welsh Swansea Motto, usually sung 

to the ancient tune of ''Men of Harlech in the 

Hollow." 

I. 

"Men of Harlech in the hollow, 

Men of Swansea on the billow. 

Men who made the pines their pillow, 

'Neath the snow sheets white. 
Men of faith who never doubted. 
Men whose banners ne'er were routed. 
Loud the cry of Wales they shouted- 

Treedom, God and Right !' 

Chorus. 
Men of Swansea glorious, 
O'er each wrong victorious, 
Still, still the air bright and fair 
Shall spread your motto o'er us I 



94 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

Onward then like Cambrian yeomen, 
Cambrian spearmen, Cambrian bowmen. 
With the motto 'gainst each foeman — 
'Freedom, God and Right!' 

11. 
Green the groves that rose to meet them, 
Strong the oaks spread out to greet them, 
Tall the pines 'mid winds that beat them. 

Shone like Cambrian towers. 
Whirled the ospreys there in wonder, 
O'er the old rocks rent asunder 

In the wiers of flowers. 

Chorus — Men of Swansea glorious, etc. 

III. 
Hail, John Myles, each roof tree turning 
Into cabined schools of learning, 
In each falling grove discerning 

Freedom's wider light ! 
Men who read Semitic story, 
Men who changed their dreams to glory. 
Sang as once the Welsh bards hoary, 

'Freedom, God and Right !' 

Chorus — Men of Swansea glorious, etc. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 95 

IV. 
'Mid their axes boldly swinging, 
Wars of Hallelujahs singing, 
To Llewellyn's legends clinging 

In their strength bedight. 
Men who gave to men their birthright, 
Men who gave to toil its earthright, 
Men who honored men for worth-right. 

Men in virtue white. 

Chorus — Men of Swansea glorious, etc. 

V. 

Sing with them, your new hopes sounding, 
March with them, a new age founding, 
With their motto still resounding, 

Lead in Freedom's van. 
Theirs the folk-note, theirs in station, 
First in counsels of the nation, 
Pioneers of education. 

For the rights of man. 

Chorus — Men of Swansea glorious, etc." 



DEDICATORY ADDRESS. 

BY REV. W. H. EATON, D. D. 

"In this quiet place, above the ashes of the 
long-time dead, we have come to assign this 
stone to the reverent task of reminding the 
passerby of John Myles, and of his vigorous, 
manysided and eventful life. May it also serve 
as a reminder of the obligations which an il- 
lustrious ancestry impose upon their descend- 
ants, even to remote generations. 

With all the aids which biography and his- 
tory can furnish, our conception of the times 
in which he lived, and the conditions under 
which he died are very imperfect, but we know 
enough of the man and his work to appreciate 
in a measure the towering grandeur of his 
character and the widespread and abounding 
influence which emanated from his life. 

Whether we look upon him as the student in 
college, the young convert, pastor-evangelist 
with missionary zeal a century in advance of 
his generation, the cherished servant of Crom- 
well, who saw in him the discriminating quali- 



REV. JOHN MYLES. 97 

ties fitting him for a most delicate and difficult 
task, the exile for conscience's sake, the pio- 
neer citizen, the sturdy champion of that re- 
ligious liberty which has become a birthright, 
a founder of first Baptist churches on two con- 
tinents, a pedagogue who, in rude cabins, 
taught little children to read, a Nestor among 
preachers, the man who dared to go to Boston 
in later years and preach the Gospel as he un- 
derstood it to the persecuted First Baptist 
church, a counsellor of the Baptists of New- 
port and Providence, an unmitred bishop, the 
fullness, variety and intensity of his life com- 
pel our admiration. 

As we gather today with uncovered heads 
and reverent tread about the spot where erst 
they laid him for his last long sleep, with pur- 
pose that his shall be no longer an unmarked 
grave, there comes to us all a conception of 
the setting of a true man in history, and of 
what lofty purpose and loyalty to the truth, 
and godlike compassion constrain men to be 
and to do, so may this stone, with its simple 
tablet, and the revival of memories which it 
brings, serve also as an incentive to us and to 



98 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

all who may behold it, to the living of such 
manner of life in its entirety of service and if 
need be, sublimity of sacrifice, as will secure 
the admiration of men and the approval of 
heaven ! 

In the name of Massachusetts, State of the 
Puritan and the Pilgrim, the veritable battle- 
ground of religious liberty, queen of Ameri- 
can Commonwealths ; in the name of the Bap- 
tist churches of Massachusetts, the first of 
which he founded; in the name of old Swan- 
sea, named from his loved home in Wales ; in 
the name of the denomination grown so many 
and widespread in the land that its stately 
march is the tramp of five millions; in the 
name of the Church Universal, whose freedom 
from statecraft he did so much to win, I dedi- 
cate this rugged, massive stone to the perpet- 
uation, if it may be, to the end of time, of the 
memory of John Myles." 



APPENDIX K. 

Bibliography. 

Allen, William, "American Biographical and 
Historical Dictionary." 

Adams, Brooks, "The Emancipation of 
Massachusetts." 

Armitage, Thomas, "A History of the Bap- 
tists." 

Arnold, Samuel G., "History of the State of 
Rhode Island." 

Asplund, John, "Annual Register of the Bap- 
tist Denomination in North America," 1790. 

Backus, Isaac, "History of the Baptists." 

Barrows, C. E., "Historical Sketch of the First 
Baptist Church, Newport." 

Barry, J. S., "History of Massachusetts," Vol. 
I. 

Baylies, Francis, "History of New Plymouth." 

Benedict, David, "A General History of the 
Baptist Denomination." 

Bicknell, Thomas W., "John Myles and Re- 
ligious Toleration in Massachusetts." 

Bliss, Leonard, Jr., "History of Rehoboth." 



100 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

Burrage, Henry S., "History of the Baptists 

in Maine." 
Burrage, Henry S., "History of the Baptists 

in New England." 
Cathcart, WilHam, "The Baptist Encyclo- 
paedia." 
Cobb, Sanford H., "The Rise of Religious 

Liberty in America." 
"Collections of the Massachusetts Historical 

Society," 4th Series, Vol. H. 
"Diary of John Comer." 
Felt, Joseph B., "Ecclesiastical History of 

New England." 
Ford, David B., "New England's Struggles 

for Religious Liberty." 
Goodwin, John A., "The Pilgrim Republic." 
Green, Albert, "Historical Address at the 

looth Anniversaary of the Founding of the 

First Baptist Church in East Providence, 

Including Baptist History in Ancient Reho- 

both." 
"Historical Sketches of Barrington," edited by 

Thos. W. Bicknell. 
"Historical Sketch of Baptist Beginnings in 

Berkshire, Mass.," by Rev. W. H. Eaton, 

D. D. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. lOI 

Hoar, George F., "Oration Delivered at Ply- 
mouth at the 275th Anniversary of the Land- 
ing of the Pilgrims, Dec. 21, 1895." 

Keen, William W., 'The Bicentennial of the 
Founding of the First Baptist Church in 
Philadelphia." 

King, Henry M., "A Summer Visit of Three 
Rhode Islanders to the Massachusetts Bay 
in 1651." 

King, Henry M., "Religious Liberty, an His- 
torical Paper." 

King, Henry M., "The Baptism of Roger Wil- 
liams." 

King, Henry M., "The Mother Church." 

Knowles, James D., "Memoir of Roger Wil- 
liams." 

"Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Maga- 
zine," Old Series, Vol. L 

"New England Magazine," New Series, Vol. 
XVH, p. 342, Article by WilHam A. Slater, 
"Two Champions of Religious Liberty in 
New England, Obadiah Holmes and John 
Myles." 

"New Hampshire Provincial Papers." 



102 REV. JOHN MYLES. 

Newman, Albert H., ''A Century of Baptist 
Achievement." 

Newman, Albert H., "American Church His- 
tory," Vol. II, "The Baptists." 

Oliver, Peter, "The Puritan Commonwealth, 
an Historical Review of the Puritan Gov- 
ernment in Massachusetts in its Civil and 
Ecclesiastical Relations from its Rise to the 
Abrogation of the First Charter." 

Osgood, Herbert L., "The American Colonies 
in the Seventeenth Century." 

"Plymouth Colony Records," Vol. IV. 

Quint, A. H., "Memorial Address at the 250th 
Anniversary of the First Parish in Dover, 
N. H." 

"Rhode Island Historical Collections," Vol. 
VI. 

Sprague, W. B., "Annals of the American 
Baptist Pulpit." 

St. John, Wallace, "The Contest for Liberty 
of Conscience in England." 

"State of Rhode Island and Providence Plan- 
tations at the End of the Century; a His- 
tory," edited by Edward Field. 



REV. JOHN MYLES. IO3 

Thatcher, J. J., '^Historical Sketch of the First 
Baptist Church, Swansea, Mass." 

Tustin, Josiah P., "Dedication Discourse, De- 
livered in Warren, R. I., 1845." 

Waters, Henry F., Ancestry of Roger Williams 
in England. In N. E. Historical and Gene- 
alogical Register, Vol. 43, pp. 294-303. 

Winthrop, John, "History of New England." 

Wood, Nathan E., "History of the First Bap- 
tist Church in Boston." 



INDEX. 

Act of Uniformity, 7, 9. 

Adams, Brooks, 44. 

Alby, Benjamin, 26, 55, 66, 68. 

Alden, John, 30. 

Aldrich, George, 66. 

Allen, Gideon, 66. 

Allen, John, 36, 45, 57, 65, 70. 

Allen, Nehemiah, 66. 

Asplund, Rev. John, 82. 

Attempted Church in Weymouth, yy. 

Backus' History, 38, 47, 81. 

Baptists, Characteristic Principle, 5, 39, 40. 

Barnes, Thomas, 66. 

Bartram, William, 66. 

Bellingham Church, 81. 

Bellingham, Governor, 22. 

Benedict, David, 21. 

Bicknell, Thomas W., 48, 70, 85. 

Bliss, Leonard, Jr., 81. 

Boston First Church, 44. 

Bosworth, Jonathan, 66. 



I06 INDEX. 

Bowen, Jabez, 28. 
Bowen, Obadiah, 28, 66. 
Brace, Stephen, 66. 
Bradford, William, 30. 
Brooks, Timothy, 66. 
Browne, James, 26, 30, 55, 57, 66, 68, 70. 
Browne, John, 26, 45, 66. 
Brownes, John and Samuel, 17. 
Brown University, 14, 28. 
Burges, Richard, 66. 
Burrag-e, Rev. Henry S., 27. 
Butterworth, Hezekiah, 93. 
Biitterworth, John, 25, 26, 36, 38, 55, 57, 63, 66, 
68, 70. I 

Cahoone, William, 66. 

Carpenter, Joseph, 26, 55, 66, 68. 

Charles L, i, 4, 12. 

Charles IL, 4, 6, 8, 13, 19. 

Cheshire, Mass., 38. 

Child, Jeremiah, 66. 

Clarke, John, 18, 20, 21, 29, 40, 49. 

Cole, Hugh, 66. 

Cole, John, 66. 

Comer, Rev. John, 81. 



INDEX. 107 



Consett, William, 1 1 . 
Conventicle Act, 7. 
Corporation Act, 7. 
Covenant of Swansea Church, 52. 
Crandall, John, 18, 21. 
Cromwell, i, 2. 

Davis, John W., 'jy. 
Dickse, John, 66. 
Division of Inhabitants, 67. 
Draper, Edward, 11. 
Dunster, Henry, 44. 

Easterbrooks, Thomas, 46, 66. 

East Providence Church, 81. 

Eaton, Isaac, 14. 

Eaton, Rev. W. H-, 35, 96. 

Eddy, Caleb, 66, 

Eddy, Zachariah, 66. 

Edwards, Morgan, 14, 15. 

Elliot, John, 36. 

Elliot, Thomas, 66. 

Evans, Christmas, 14. 

Field, Edward, 17. 



I08 INDEX. 

First Bapt. Church in Wales, ii, 13, 15. 
Five Mile Act, 8. 

Goodwin, John A., 17, 31. 
Goold, Thomas, 44, 45. 
Griffith, Thomas, 14. 

Harrington, Rev. Benjamin, 83. 
Harvard University, 44, 72. 
Haywood, William, 66. 
Hazel, John, 24. 
Hoar, George F., 39. 
Hollis, Thomas, 44, 72. 
Holmes, Obadiah, 18, 20, 21, 24. 
Hopkins, Stephen, 28. 

Ilston, Wales, 11. 

In graham, Gerard, 66. 

Ingraham, William, 66. 

Jones, David, 14. 
Jones, Jenkin, 15. 
Jones, Robert, 66. 
Jones, Samuel, 14, 15. 

Keen, William W., 15. 



INDEX. 109 



Kelley's Bridge, 35. 

Kent, Joseph, 66. 

Kingsley, Eldad, 26, 55, 66, 68. 

Kittery Church, 27. 

Knollys, Hanserd, 47, ^'j, 

Lewis, Joseph, 66. 

Lewis, Nathaniel, 66. 

Lewis, Thomas, 66. 

Lucar, Mark, 20. 

Luther, Hezekiah, (^. 

Luther, Martin, 3. 

Luther, Rev. Samuel, (i(y, 72, 82, 86. 

Macaulay, T. B., 8. 
Mann, James, 24. 
Manning, Thomas, 66, 
Martin, John, 66. 
Mason, Sampson, 66. 
Massachusetts Bay, 17. 
Mather, Cotton, 30, 44, 47. 
Maxwell, Rev. Samuel, 83. 
Melanchthon, 3. 
Miles, Nelson A., 49. 
Morgan, Abel, 14, 15. 



no INDEX. 

Morgan, Evan, 14, 15. 

Myles, Rev. John, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 26, 

30, 32, 38, 39> 40, 41.' 42, 43, 45, 46, 49, 55» 

63, 65, 68, 85, 89. 
Myles, John, Jr., 49, 66. 
Myles, Rev. Samuel, 49. 

Newman, A. H., 38. 
Newman, Rev. Samuel, 20, 30. 
Newport First Church, 29. 
Newport Second Church, 29. 

Oak Swamps Church, 81. 
OHver, Peter, 9. 
Olney, Thomas, 29. 
Olney, Thomas, Jr., 29. 
Oswego Church, 81. 

Paddock, John, 66. 

Paine, Nathaniel, 36, 57, 66. 

Perry, Edgar D., 17. 

Peters, Rev. Hugh, 34. 

Pilgrims, 22, 24. 

Plymouth Colony, 17, 19, 21, 24, 30. 

Powell, Vavasor, 14. 



INDEX. Ill 

Presbyterians, 5. 
Prince, Thomas, 30. 
Proud, Thomas, 11. 
Providence First Church, 28. 
Providence Second Church, 29. 
Puritans, 3, 17, 22, 24. 

Quint, A. H., 80. 

Rhys, David Thomas, 14. 

Saltonstall, Richard, 19. 
Savoy Conference, 6. 
Screven, Rev. WiUiam, 27. 
Seekonk, 23. 
Sharp, Richard, 66. 
Smith, Edward, 24. 
State Boundary Line, 17. 
St. John, Wallace, 2. 
Swansea Church, Baptist, 85. 
Symmes, Rev. Zachariah, 32. 

Tanner, Nicholas, 26, 28, 31, 32, 36, 55, (£, 68. 
Thomas, David, 14. 
Thomas, John, 28. 
Thurber, John, 66. 



112 INDEX. 

Toogood, Nathaniel, 66. 
Tory, Joseph, 24. 
Town of Swansea, 33, 56. 
Tyler's Point, 48, 85. 

Vane, Sir Henry, 7. 

Wannamoisett, 33, 56. 

Warren Church, 81. 

Waters, Henry F., 14. 

West, John, 66. 

Wheaton, Rev. Ephraim, "^2, 83. 

Wheaton, Henry, 84. 

Wheaton, Joseph, 66. 

Wheaton, Levi P., 84. 

Wheaton, Robert, 83. 

Wheaton, Samuel, 66. 

Willett, Thomas, 36, 37, 38, 57, 58, 65. 

Williams, John, 14. 

Williams, Roger, 7, 14, 18, 28, 40, 49, 79. 

Wilson, Rev. James, 89. 

Winslow, Job, 66. 

Wood, Rev. Jabez, 83. 

Wood, Rev. Nathan E., 27. 

Woodbury, Samuel, 66. 

Zwingli, 3. 



A Summer Visit of Three Rhode Islanders 
to the Massachusetts Bay in I65t 



By henry MElyVITvI^K KING 
Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Providence, R. I. 



Cloth, 12 mo., 115 pages. Price, $1.00 net. 

Uniform with ''John Myles." 



An account of the visit of Dr. John Clarke, 
Obadiah Holmes and John Crandall, members 
OF the Baptist Church in Newport, R. I., to 
William Witter of Swampscott, Mass., in July, 
1651: ITS innocent purpose and its painful con- 
sequences, 

" Dr. King's pungent and conclusive essay is a 
timely contribution. He adduces competent evi- 
dence refuting the gratuitous insinuations of Palfrey 
and Dexter, who charged the Rhode Islanders in 
question with sinister political motives and excused 
their alleged maltreatment on that ground. Cita- 
tions from original documents, with a bibliography, 
put the reader in position to verify the allegations of 
the author." — T/ie Watchman. 

"The late Dr. Dexter, along with other Puritan 
apologists, is again successfully refuted ; at the same 
time recently discovered evidence of Roger Wil- 
liams* having been banished on account of • his dif- 
ferent opinions in matters of religion,' is advanced 
out of the mouths of his half-relenting persecutors." 
— The Evening Post. 



Sent postpaid upon receipt of the price by the 
publishers. 

PRESTON & ROUNDS CO. 

Providence, R. I. 



The Baptism of Roger Williams 

A Review 
OF Rev. Dr. W, H. Whitsitt's Inference 



By henry meIvVillk king 

Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Providence, R. I. 



With an Introduction by Rkv. Jbsse B. Thomas, D.D. 

Professor of Church History in the Newton 

Theological Institution 



" We have to thank Dr. King for giving us so care- 
ful and so convincing a statement of the grounds for 
the traditional belief. It could, indeed, make no dif- 
ference with our duty as Baptists if Roger Williams 
had not been immersed ; but we are glad to be reas- 
sured, by one so competent to present the facts in 
the case, that we may still claim our great Baptist 
pioneer as an immersed follower of the Lord." — The 
Examiner. 

"The argument of the book is decisive, in our 
opinion, and the book is a valuable contribution to 
Baptist historical literature.*' — The Western Re- 
corder. 



Cloth, 12 mo., 145 pages. Price, $1.00 net. 

Uniform with "John Myles." 



Sent postpaid upon receipt of the price, 

PRESTON & ROUNDS CO. 

Providence, R. I. 



Religious Liberty 



An Historical Paper 



By henry mbIvVILI^K king 
Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Providence, R. I. 



•• This is one of those highly satisfactory papers in 
small compass that we sometimes come across that 
sheds a clearer and more comprehensive light upon a 
large subject than many a thicker volume, or series of 
volumes, is capable of doing. ^ * * The scholarly 
fervor of the Puritan pen is easily observable in these 
clear and simple tracings of the direct path of descent 
of one of- the noblest principles of American civiliza- 
tion. * * * The subject certainly has an able and 
pleasing expositor.'' — Boston Transcript. 

*• The book is one that will command attention from 
all thinking people, and its value as a history of the 
development of religious liberty is great." — Provi- 
dence Telegram. 



Cloth, 12 mo., i32"pages. Price, $i.oo net. 

Uniform with "John Myles." 



Sent postpaid upon receipt of the price. 

PRESTON & ROUNDS CO. 

Providence, R. I. 



